Activity Detail

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Activity Overview

Students compute statistical measures like the mean, standard deviation, and variance of the data set. They understand how measures of variability can be interpreted.

Before the Activity

  • See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity
  • Print pages 132 - 134 from the attached PDF file for your class


  • During the Activity

    Distribute the pages to the class.

    Follow the activity procedures:
  • Start a stopwatch and stop it after 20 to 30 seconds have elapsed
  • Without looking at the watch, estimate and record the elapsed time
  • Compare the recorded times with the actual elapsed time
  • Determine the margin of error [no negative values]
  • Enter the error data in a stem and leaf plot
  • Find the average error
  • Determine the mean absolute deviation
  • Repeat the experiment and find the new average error
  • Understand that the new average error should be smaller than before due to experience in estimation
  • Compute the mean of the data
  • Calculate Standard Deviation and understand that it is another way of measuring the amount of variation about the mean in a data set
  • Repeat the calculation with other sets of data


    After the Activity

    Students complete the Student Activity pages.

  • Review student results
  • As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
  • Re-teach concepts as necessary


    Other Downloads




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    Subject Area:
    Math : Statistics : Inferential Statistics

    Author:
    Texas Instruments

    Level:
    9-12

    Activity Time:
    60 Minutes

    Device:
    TI-30X IIB, TI-30X IIS, TI-34 II Explorer Plus™

    Apps:
     

    Software:
     

    Accessories:
     

    Other:
    This is Activity 13 from the EXPLORATIONS Book:
    Math Investigations with the TI-30X IIS: Activities for Secondary Mathematics

    The following materials are required for this activity:

  • Stopwatch
  • 3 X 5 index cards


  • Report an issue with this activity