Education Technology

Mathematical Modeling: Modeling Judging a Poster Contest

by Texas Instruments

Objectives

 Students will be able to:

  • Model a contextual situation mathematically and use the model to answer a question.
  • Create equations in two or more variables to represent relationships between quantities.
  • Summarize and compare data sets using measures of center and variability.

About the Lesson

The activity can be used with middle and introductory algebra students, and lends itself to a group project. The activity could be a precursor to a more extensive activity on investigating voting methods for students in geometry or second year algebra. The analysis can be connected to statistical summaries for center and variability and possibly to z-scores, as a way to normalize the ratings of the different judges.