Education Technology


An Average Lunch?

Activity Overview

Students explore the meaning of the average (mean) value for a set of data.

Before the Activity

  • See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity
  • Print student activity sheet page 131 from the attached PDF for your class
  • During the Activity

    Distribute the page to the class.

    Follow the activity procedures:

  • Work in small groups to brainstorm different possible combinations of lunch prices that could give an average lunch price of $1.85 each day
  • Record the combinations
  • Encourage students to use efficient mathematical notation
  • Look for patterns in the sets of data recorded
  • Understand what a mean value represents and what it tells about the value of the individual pieces of data
  • Describe characteristics that might be expected in a data set that has a given mean value
  • After the Activity

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