Activity Overview
Exit Stage Left - refers to an uneventful departure making way for more interesting events. If you're an actress, you may forgiven for thinking the definition referred to youthful rather than interesting. In this activity students use parallel boxplots to compare the age at which actors and actresses receive Hollywood's most prestigious award.
Objectives
Students use parallel boxplots to compare two sets of data and then use regression to see if there are any long term changes that might bring some hopeful change. Aside from the mathematical lens being applied to the data, students should think about the societal impacts highlighted by the data.
Vocabulary
- Boxplot
- Parallel Boxplots
- Five Figure Summary
- Quartiles
- Regression
About the Lesson
PowerPoint files are provided for the teacher to present the data in an interesting manner. Students calculate the five figure summary and prepare parallel boxplots to compare the age at which actors and actresses win one of Hollywood's most prestigious awards! What does the data say about our movie preferences as viewed through a mathematical lens? Is this a case of Entrapment or has Something Gotta Give? Students then apply regression analysis to see if the times are a changing.