standard_description: Informally assess the degree of visual overlap of two numerical data distributions with similar variabilities, measuring the difference between the centers by expressing it as a multiple of a measure of variability. For example, the mean height of players on the basketball team is 10 cm greater than the mean height of players on the soccer team, about twice the variability (mean absolute deviation) on either team; on a dot plot, the separation between the two distributions of heights is noticeable.
problem_activity: Warm-up
The mathematical purpose of this activity is for students to reason about the area under a normal curve using what they know about composition and decomposition of areas.
If students are using a table of values with
\(z\)
-scores for this lesson, this work will be essential to finding the desired areas in many cases.
Launch
Remind students that the phrase “the area under the curve” means the area between the
\(x\)
-axis and the curve.
Student Facing
The images show a normal curve with mean of 40 and standard deviation of 2.
The area under the curve to the left of 39 is 0.3085.
[IMG]
The area under the curve to the left of 43 is 0.9332.
[IMG]
Since it is a normal curve, we know that the total area under the curve is 1. Use the given areas to find the areas in question. Explain your reasoning for each.
Find the area under the curve to the right of 39.
Find the area under the curve between 39 and 43.
Find the area under the curve to the left of 40.
Find the area under the curve between 39 and 40.
Student Response
Teachers with a valid work email address can
click here to register or sign in
for free access to Student Response.
Activity Synthesis
The purpose of this discussion is to make sure students can use the given areas to compose or decompose them to find additional areas. For each question, ask a student to explain how they reasoned about their answer. Highlight places where students used the symmetry of the distribution or cases where they could add or subtract known areas to find new areas.


aligns: no