Hi there! Today we are going to learn how to ask great questions and group data using cool math charts.
Before we make a chart, we need a good question. In math, we ask 'statistical questions' which have answers that vary, like 'How many minutes do my classmates read each night?'
A box plot is a chart that shows how spread out our data is. It splits our data into four equal parts using a box and whiskers to show the middle half and the outer halves.
A histogram groups data into equal intervals, like 0-5, 6-11, and 12-17. It uses touching bars to show how many data points fall into each group.
✏️ Worked example
Imagine you want to study how much time students spend on homework. Let's walk through how to ask a good inquiry question and sort the data.
First, we generate our inquiry question. A good question is: 'How many minutes do seventh-grade students spend on homework each night?'
Next, we collect our data in minutes: 10, 15, 20, 22, 25, 30, 45, 50, 60.
To make a histogram, we group the minutes into equal ranges: 0-20 minutes, 21-40 minutes, and 41-60 minutes.
Now, we count how many data points fit into each range. The 0-20 range has 3 points, 21-40 has 3 points, and 41-60 has 3 points.
Finally, we draw three touching bars of equal height to show our grouped homework data!
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