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