Students use an online tool to create colorful bar, line, or pie graphs to display collected data. This lesson could be adapted for use with almost any curriculum unit.
Objectives
Students will
decide on a survey question to ask or a type of data to gather. They might also use a teacher-provided idea or one of the ideas listed in the Lesson Plan section of this lesson.
collect information and data.
display the data in bar, line, or pie graphs they create with a free online tool.
describe orally and in writing what they learned from the activity.
a free online create-a-graph tool or software provided by the school
Lesson Plan
Before the Lesson
Familiarize yourself with the free online Create a Graph tool. A kindergarten student can learn to use this tool with ease. (Note: Any graph-making software your school might have can be substituted for this online tool.) This tool can be adapted to many teaching units.
Decide what kinds of information students will graph, or help students create their own survey questions; they can use the graphing tool to display the results of their surveys.
Project and Lesson Ideas
This lesson can be adapted to almost any curriculum unit. Following are just a handful of projects and lessons that students can do using the online graphing tool:
Students studying state history can create a graph to show state population growth over the years.
Students can monitor the amount of leisure reading they do each day, then create graphs to show how many minutes they read each day for a week.
Students might survey other students about the kinds of pets they have and create graphs to show the most popular pets.
Students could research the rising cost of certain consumer goods (e.g. the average car, a loaf of bread) over the years and graph the results. They might figure the average cost of an item today and use the online inflation calculator to determine what that item might have cost 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 years ago.
Students might choose a U.S. or world city and use online or newspaper sources to monitor the high temperature in that city each day for a week. (Every student could track the weather in a different city.) Variation: Students could calculate the average high temperature for the week, then create a graph to compare the average high temperatures in a group of cities.
Students might survey other students to learn how many people are in each of their families. The could create graphs to show how many families have two, three, four, five, or six or more members.
Provide students with the store ad supplements that come in your daily newspaper. Have them use the ads from two stores to find the same items in both ads and compare the prices for those items in the two stores. Students can create graphs showing the items in both stores. (If available, students might print one of their graphs on a transparency sheet so they could lay it over the other graph to make a very visual comparison of prices.)
Have students estimate the number of words on a dictionary page by counting the actual number of entries on ten different pages and finding the average. Then ask them to estimate the number of words in the dictionary that begin with specific letters by multiplying the average number of words on a page by the number of pages devoted to each of those letters. Finally, students can graph the results to create a visual comparison of the number of words beginning with different letters of the alphabet.
Students can create their own survey questions, conduct surveys, and graph the results. Questions might relate to areas of study, hobbies, favorite books, TV shows, video movies, or video games. The possibilities are endless!
When students have completed the graphs, provide time for each student to present his or her findings to the class. Students should explain how they collected information, what the graphs show, and what they learned from the activity. Some might share ideas for follow-up surveys or graphs that would help them learn more or clarify data they collected. Ask students to write paragraphs summarizing what they learned.
Extension Activity
Students can use their visual and art skills to turn the graphs they've created into art that truly represents the subject of the graph. For example, if the bar graph compares the cost of an item over the years, each bar might be cut from a photocopied dollar bill; if the pie chart shows the results of a class pet census, the circle of the chart might appear as the face of a cat.
Assessment
Grade students on their ability to collect data and plug that data into the online graph-creation tool in order to create a graphic representation of the information they collected and on their presentations to the class.
Lesson Plan Source
Education World
Submitted By
Gary Hopkins
National Standards
ARTS: Visual Arts GRADES K - 4 NA-VA.K-4.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes NA-VA.K-4.3 Choosing and Evaluating A Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas NA-VA.K-4.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines GRADES 5 - 8 NA-VA.5-8.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes NA-VA.5-8.3 Choosing and Evaluating A Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas NA-VA.5-8.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines GRADES 9 - 12 NA-VA.9-12.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes NA-VA.9-12.3 Choosing and Evaluating A Range of Subject Matter, Symbols, and Ideas NA-VA.9-12.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines
MATHEMATICS: Number and Operations GRADES Pre-K - 2 NM-NUM.PK-2.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems GRADES 3 - 5 NM-NUM.3-5.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems GRADES 6 - 8 NM-NUM.6-8.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems NM-NUM.6-8.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates GRADES 9 - 12 NM-NUM.9-12.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems NM-NUM.9-12.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates
MATHEMATICS: Measurement GRADES Pre-K - 2 NM-MEA.PK-2.1 Understand Measurable Attributes of Objects and the Units, Systems, and Processes of Measurement GRADES 3 - 5 NM-MEA.3-5.1 Understand Measurable Attributes of Objects and the Units, Systems, and Processes of Measurement GRADES 6 - 8 NM-MEA.6-8.1 Understand Measurable Attributes of Objects and the Units, Systems, and Processes of Measurement GRADES 9 - 12 NM-MEA.9-12.1 Understand Measurable Attributes of Objects and the Units, Systems, and Processes of Measurement
MATHEMATICS: Data Analysis and Probability GRADES Pre-K - 2 NM-DATA.PK-2.1 Formulate Questions That Can Be Addressed With Data and Collect, Organize, and Display Relevant Data to Answer GRADES 3 - 5 NM-DATA.3-5.1 Formulate Questions That Can Be Addressed With Data and Collect, Organize, and Display Relevant Data to Answer NM-DATA.3-5.3 Develop and Evaluate Inferences and Predictions That Are Based on Data GRADES 6 - 8 NM-DATA.6-8.1 Formulate Questions That Can Be Addressed With Data and Collect, Organize, and Display Relevant Data to Answer NM-DATA.6-8.3 Develop and Evaluate Inferences and Predictions That Are Based on Data GRADES 9 - 12 NM-DATA.9-12.1 Formulate Questions That Can Be Addressed With Data and Collect, Organize, and Display Relevant Data to Answer NM-DATA.9-12.3 Develop and Evaluate Inferences and Predictions That Are Based on Data
MATHEMATICS: Problem Solving GRADES Pre-K - 12 NM-PROB.PK-12.3 Apply and Adapt a Variety of Appropriate Strategies to Solve Problems NM-PROB.PK-12.4 Monitor and Reflect on the Process of Mathematical Problem Solving
MATHEMATICS: Reasoning and Proof GRADES Pre-K - 12 NM-REA.PK-12.2 Make and Investigate Mathematical Conjectures
MATHEMATICS: Communications GRADES Pre-K - 12 NM-COMM.PK-12.2 Communicate Their Mathematical Thinking Coherently and Clearly to Peers, Teachers, and Others
MATHEMATICS: Connections GRADES Pre-K - 12 NM-CONN.PK-12.3 Recognize and Apply Mathematics in Contexts Outside of Mathematics
MATHEMATICS: Representation GRADES Pre-K - 12 NM-REP.PK-12.1 Create and Use Representations to Organize, Record, and Communicate Mathematical Ideas NM-REP.PK-12.3 Use Representations to Model and Interpret Physical, Social, and Mathematical Phenomena
TECHNOLOGY GRADES K - 12 NT.K-12.1 Basic Operations and Concepts NT.K-12.4 Technology Communications tools
