Understandings
What overarching understandings are desired?
7.2 Investigation - Students design and conduct a variety of their own investigations and projects
b. Design and conduct a systematic observation
d. Complete a data study.
7.6 Arithmetic, Number, and Operation Concepts – Students understand arithmetic in computation, and they select and use, in appropriate situations, mental arithmetic, pencil and paper, calculator, and computer.
a. Add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers, with and without calculators.
c. Describe and compare quantities by using simple fractions and decimals, and whole numbers up to 1,000,000.
bb. Interchange fractions, decimals, and percents; know that irrational numbers neither terminate nor repeat when written in decimal form.
7.9 Statistics and Probability Concepts: Students use statistics and probability concepts.
a. Collect, order, display, and analyze data in order to answer a question or test a hypothesis.
What will students understand as a result of this unit?
Students will understand how surveys are often used in our society, including census. They will understand how to conduct their own survey, compile the data, evaluate it and present it.
What are the overarching “essential” questions?
- What is a census?
- What is a survey?
- How can surveys be used?
- How can you evaluate survey results?
Evidence
What evidence will show that students understand surveys, number operations, and presenting data in multiple forms?
Performance tasks, Projects: Students will conduct their own survey, asking at least 3 different questions of their determined population. This project must include results presented as fractions, percents, decimals and one form of graph.
Quizzes, Tests, and Academic Prompts: Students will be prompted in class to convert statistics to different forms (decimal, fraction). Students will be given prompts to see if they can understand the significance of certain data.
Student self-assessment: At the end of this unit students will be asked if they can use their survey results in any way, is so how? Also, they will be asked how they would conduct the survey different in the future, and what new questions they would like to conduct surveys about.
Learning Experiences and Instruction
Given the targeted understandings, other unit goals, and the assessment evidence identified, what knowledge and skill are needed?
Students will need to be able to add, and a basic understanding of multiplication and division.
What teaching and learning experiences will equip students to demonstrate the targeted understandings?
We will begin to form an understanding of what a census is by finding out what students already know about a census. I will present some figures from the 2000 census of Albany. The students will break up into groups and I will give them each a data set, like race, gender, income, etc. They will be asked to determine which identity groups are the majority and which are the minority. The groups will also be asked to discuss how this data could be useful, and what the causes might be for certain distributions (for example, if there is a predominant racial group, or income level, what are some probable reasons why ). Then the groups will present to the class.
I will touch on certain ways that census can be used in public policy that may not have been discussed yet, and talk about the usefulness, and conflict in utilizing surveys and census. I will explain definitions like population, samples, qualitative, quantitative etc. I will demonstrate changing a number out of a total, to a fraction, to a decimal to a percent, and demonstrate different ways of graphing.
As a class we will brainstorm questions that students find interesting for themselves. We will talk about what sort of questions would be important to know within our school community. What questions could inform policy within our school community (this is a very broad idea, because the students have a lot of autonomy in school policy).
Students will break up into small groups to decide on a couple of questions their group would like to explore. The questions should be relevant to each other, and relevant to the school community. They need to discuss which population they will exactly be surveying. Will the answers to their survey questions be quantitative or qualitative, and how will they group the data together.
Then as a class we will discuss how the survey should be administered: all groups questions together, one class at a time, anonymously…? Then students will administer their surveys.
Bringing their data back to their groups they will create a display of their data represented in different forms. Together they will come up with overall understandings and findings from their data, as well as any suggested further steps.
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