standard_description: Understand that a set of data collected to answer a statistical question has a distribution which can be described by its center, spread, and overall shape.
problem_activity: Warm-up
The purpose of this warm-up is to elicit the idea that there are different ways to collect and represent data. This will be useful when students examine statistical designs in a later activity. While students may notice and wonder many things about these images, how the data are represented (or misrepresented) is the important discussion point.
Through articulating things they notice and things they wonder about the headlines and graph, students have an opportunity to attend to precision in the language they use to describe what they see (MP6). They might first propose less formal or imprecise language, and then restate their observation with more precise language in order to communicate more clearly.
Launch
Display the image and headlines for all to see. Ask students to think of at least one thing they notice and at least one thing they wonder. Give students 1 minute of quiet think time, and then 1 minute to discuss the things they notice and wonder with their partner, followed by a whole-class discussion.
Student Facing
A graph and 2 headlines from a website are shown.
What do you notice? What do you wonder?
[IMG]
“80% of Dentists Recommend Acme Toothpaste”
“Pythagoras Brand Rulers Measure 20% Better”
Student Response
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Activity Synthesis
Ask students to share the things they noticed and wondered. Record and display their responses for all to see. If possible, record the relevant reasoning on or near the image or statement. After all responses have been recorded without commentary or editing, ask students, “Is there anything on this list that you are wondering about?” Encourage students to respectfully disagree, ask for clarification, or point out contradicting information.
Display a wider view of the graph that shows more of the story.
[IMG]
Ask, “How does having the whole graph tell a different story than just having the part of the graph from 1998 to 2012?” (In the whole graph, you can see that the slope of the line is positive over the 112 years represented in the graph, and you could find other 12-year periods in which the slope is negative, positive, or close to zero.) If time allows, follow up by asking, “Does the dashed line appear to be a line of best fit or is it something else? Explain your reasoning.” (The dashed line does not appear to be a line of best fit. It just seems to connect the first point in the graph to the last point. This could be misleading since the line of best fit would have a greater slope than the dashed line, and would be a little lower on the graph.)
Here are some questions for discussion:
“Why is the dentist headline potentially misleading?” (It does not mention if they recommend other brands as well. For example, dentists might just recommend using any toothpaste at all and this brand works just as well as any other brand.)
“Why is the ruler headline misleading?” (It does not mention what it is that Pythagoras rulers measure better than.)


aligns: no