Education Technology


Measure Up!

Activity Overview

In this activity, students' create a plot showing the heights of some of their classmates. They determine the extreme values and the median for the height data and construct a box-and-whisker plot to summarize the height statistics.

Before the Activity

  • Connect the CBR™ to the calculator using the link cable
  • Run the Ranger program on the calculator
  • See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity
  • Print pages 39 - 44 from the attached PDF file for your class
  • During the Activity

    Distribute the pages to your class.

    Follow the Activity procedures:

  • Prepare the CBR for data collection
  • Detach the CBR from the calculator and hold it with the detector pointing toward the ground, 0.5 meter above the head of the tallest student
  • A group of students walk beneath the CBR one at a time, as the CBR records motion data
  • Collect data and re-attach the CBR to the calculator
  • Examine the distance values in the graph and record the peak y-values
  • Find the median, lower quartile and upper quartile values
  • Construct a box-and-whisker plot and summarize the data
  • After the Activity

    Students' will collect data, analyze the results, and answer questions under the "Looking at the Results" section.

    Review student results

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