options: Statistics & Probability: students learn to analyze and produce data distributions, and build understanding of univariate and bivariate data. They learn to interpret data, make statistical inferences, justify conclusions, understand rules of probability, and use probability to make decisions.

Number Systems and Quantity: students learn to understand the complex number system and reason quantitatively.

Number & Operations - Fractions: students learn to understand fractions as numbers and may work with them using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Measurement & Data: students learn to work with data and measure attributes such as time, money, length, area, and volume. They may learn to compare measurements to operations and convert between different units of measure.

Counting & Cardinality: students learn to know number names and the count sequence, count to tell the number of objects, and compare numbers.

Number & Operations in Base Ten: students learn to work with the base-ten system and build place value understanding.

Ratios & Proportional Relationships: students learn to recognize, describe, represent, and reason with ratios, rates, proportional relationships, and percent.

Modeling: students learn to choose and use appropriate mathematics and statistics to analyze real-world empirical situations, improve decisions, and report on their conclusions and the reasoning behind them.

Operations & Algebra: students learn to solve problems using algebraic thinking and operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They may learn to identify and explain arithmetic patterns, evaluate or manipulate numerical expressions, and reason with equations and inequalities.

Geometry: students learn to classify geometric figures by their properties, and understand and compare the relationships between them. Students develop and use formulas to compute lengths, areas, and volumes, and they use transformations to generate new shapes and compare existing ones. Geometry can be studied with and without coordinates.

Functions: students learn to define, use, and evaluate functions to model relationships between quantities.
problem_activity: Activity
The goal of this activity is for students to be reminded of the importance of measures of variability. Students compare data sets and decide which is the better option. Students must explain their reasoning for choosing one of the options and use statistics to justify their answers. This activity helps students gain more practice working with using variability to compare data sets.
Launch
Allow students to work individually or in pairs.
Student Facing
Choose the best option based on the given data. Use a measure of center and measure of variability to justify your answers.
Participants’ ages at camp A
[IMG]
Participants’ ages at camp B
mean: 11.93 years, mean absolute deviation: 1.65 years
Servers’ tip amounts at restaurant A
mean:
$
15, mean absolute deviation:
$
1.5
Servers’ tip amounts at restaurant B
[IMG]
​​​​​​Which camp would you prefer to work for? Explain your reasoning.
Which camp would you prefer to attend? Explain your reasoning.
At which restaurant would you want to be a server? Explain your reasoning.
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
Discuss how students made their decisions. Here are sample questions to promote class discussion:
“How did the variability influence your choices?" (When there is greater variability, the values are more spread out, so that helped me think about whether I wanted consistent values or a wider range.)
"What are some situations in which less variability might be preferred?" (When you want the results to be consistent and reliable. Examples include the number of points scored by a good player, the miles a car can go on a single gallon of gas, or the price of milk.)
“How would the process of choosing the best situation be different if you were given a box plot?” (With a histogram or box plot, I wouldn’t have known exact numbers, so I would probably have to use a measure like IQR or the median to help make my decision.)


correct_option_index: 0