Lesson 15

The purpose of this lesson is for students to create a survey, collect and represent data, and ask and answer questions related to the data.

This lesson is optional because it does not address any new mathematical content standards. This lesson does provide students with an opportunity to apply precursor skills of mathematical modeling. In previous lessons, students used and interpreted survey data presented in different representations, including tally marks and numbers. Students were also given the opportunity to create their own representations. Students answered questions such as: “how many of in each category?” and “how many in all?” to analyze the data. 
 
In this lesson, students create their own survey question and collect data. Then they interpret the data in order to answer questions they create. The task is an opportunity for students to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them (MP1). At the end of the lesson, they synthesize what they learned about the data and compare their results and approaches with their classmates. This lesson supports the development of mathematical modeling skills by providing students opportunities to make choices about the data to collect and how to best represent their findings (MP4).

This lesson is allocated to be more than 60 minutes, but it can be adjusted to meet the needs of the students. The activities can be modified or cut to fit within 1 day or extended to span over 2 days.

• Students need access to the data they collected in the previous activity.

• Students need access to their data and questions from the previous activities.

How did the student work that you selected impact the direction of the discussion? What student work might you pick next time if you taught the lesson again?