NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

1. NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre Tinker with Tinker Plots Elaine Watkins, Senior Curriculum Officer, Numeracy

2. Graphs in the curriculum • Graphs play a significant role in the mathematics curriculum, providing visual means of presenting information. • The visual representations provide numerical, pictorial, and statistical information by combining symbols, points, lines, numbers, shading and colour (Tufte, 1983) with the aim of conveying information quickly and efficiently. • Students should have the experience to create graphs with and without technology, so that they can explain what they have created and draw conclusions from the representations.

3. Comparison of Syllabus Outcomes

4. Comparison of Syllabus Outcomes

5. What is Tinker Plots? • Tinker Plots is a data analysis program designed to enable students in grades 4–8 to get excited about what they can learn from data. • The students will analyse data by creating colourful visual representations that will help the students make sense out of real data and recognize patternsas they unfold. • Students can use Tinker Plots to produce reports that include graphs, along with text that explains their findings and even photos they take or locate on the Internet. • Students can manipulate data and learn what the relationships mean.

6. How can Tinker plots be used? Students can use Tinker plots to: • construct dot plots for numerical data • consider the data type to determine & draw the most appropriate display for the data, including column graphs, dot plots and line graphs • name & label the horizontal & vertical axes when constructing graphs • tabulate collected data, including numerical data with & without the use of digital technologies such as spreadsheets • discuss & draw conclusions from different data displays • interpret information presented in two-way tables • create a two-way table to organise data involving two categorical variables • interpret & compare different displays of the same data • interpret data representations found in digital media and in factual texts.

7. What is a stacked dot plot? • A stacked dot plot is a way of representing numerical data. • They are ideal for making comparisons of data.

8. Table group task using a stacked dot plot • As a table group collect data to create a stacked dot plot. • Write down your height (estimate if not known), and shoe size. • As a whole group, determine an appropriate scale for creating a stacked dot plot. • Use a paper streamer for the scale and the coloured dots to create a stacked dot plot to represent the data you collected. • Label the stacked dot plot. • What questions could you ask about your graph and data?

9. Features of a stacked dot plot Features include: • An automatic sorting of data - once the axis is chosen the data points can be plotted in any order but are actually sorted by the plotting process. • A good choice of scale in a dot plot can make the shape of the data clearer • Easy identification of the range and highlighting of extreme values (‘outliers’). • Reveals any peaks and/or mode/s in the data.

10. Looking at data in Tinker Plots

11. Importing data from Excel spreadsheet

12. Stacked dot plots - teaching implications • Use real data, relevant to the students • Students need to determine an appropriate scale from the data collected. Identify the lowest score and the highest score. • In a stacked dot plot, the dots must align vertically and horizontally. Example of a poor stacked dot plot Stacked dot plots only give a good pictorial representation of frequency when the 'dots' are aligned.

13. Stacked dot plots - teaching implications • The graph and the axis need to be labelled. • Is the data accurate? Look at outliers. • Students should be able to describe what the stacked dot plot shows about the data • Introduce statistical terminology to assist students to describe their data (e.g. mode, median, range, mean, outlier) • When comparing two stacked dot plots, have the same range and scale on the axis

14. Resource to support the statistics and probability strand This report focuses on the application of graphs for portraying data, and their potential as instruments for reasoning about quantitative information. Available from http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/primary/mathematics/resources/data/index.htm