Monday

Grab a Handful!

Professor hands you a box and says,"Grab a Handful!"  What do you do? Do you go small or do you really go BIG!
This was a great activity in class and it really showed us a good look into Measures of Central Tendency: Mean, Median and Mode. The measure of central tendency, in statistics, is a central or typical value for a probability distribution.  We had a class of 22 participants, we each grabbed a handful (cubes), the lowest grabbing 6 cubes and the largest handful was 22 cubes (by the way this is referred to as the Range).  We grabbed a total of 236 cubes all together in class.
A little Definitions:
Mean: Also called the average. Is best for numerical data without outliers.
Median:  The middle value of a data set when ordered least to greatest.  1/2 the data is above the median and 1/2 the data is below the median and is not affected by outliers.
Mode:  The most frequently occurring data point in the set.  Can be used with categorical or numerical data.

My Beautiful Classmates

More Beautiful Classmates


Now we find the Range of data by subtracting the least amount from the greatest amount of cubes grabbed which gives us a Range of data that is a 16. Most classmates had grabbed 9 cubes which is the Mode in the set. The value in the middle of the ordered set of numbers is the Median which was a 10 for this data set.
We did this activity in class with cubes and we all chose our own cubes and grabbed what we wanted.  Our Professor then set us loose to find other students with the same cubes and then set us loose again to find the median of the cubes, classmates were setting up in groups of 9,some trying to give away extra cubes and what we realized was the Median was 10 not 9 but it was a fun realistic activity to do and a great break the ice activity into measures of central tendency.
I had to share this video since I have a new love for Math Antics and it does a great job at describing all you need to know to get you rolling with Mean, Median and Mode! Also check out Central Tendency  at A Maths Dictionary for Kids  Jenny Eather has a great resource for teachers that is AMAZING and its for all Mathmatics check it out Jenny Eather Resources


Leave to Sammi to go big with a huge handful of cubes Lil Miss 22, *just teasin*,
Terri

3 comments:

  1. Hello! I love how creative your blog is! Everything about it is super unique! I love that you even took the time to include pictures from the activity, and you provided outside resources for extra help! However, I think maybe you are relying on the links you provided to teach more than you are yourself, because all I see here is what mean, median, and mode is best used for, but I didn't see anything about how I find those things. I will say though, it is really obvious that you took your time in creating this blog website, and I think it turned out really well.

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  2. Hello,
    I love your title as well as the starting paragraph, it really grabs the readers attention. I also really liked how you didn’t just say the mean, median and mode; you included that those together are referred to as Measures of Central Tendency. I also really liked how you described the whole activity that we did as well so that the readers have a better idea on what was going on. The video that you included was amazing as well. Good job!
    -Sam

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  3. Wow Miss Terri! I enjoyed reading this post on Mean, Median and Mode, even though I didn't enjoy the subject. However you did a great job introducing it and I liked the way you listed off the definitions, it was easier to read that way. Also, thank you for providing these resources, I think Math Antics has became a new favorite!
    - Ana

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