About This Lesson
This lesson guides students through data entry, representation, analysis, and interpretation. Students will submit data to be used as part of a larger, authentic distributed research project. They will also perform data analysis on the data they collect, and possibly data from other schools and past years; this will help them with their “data jam” that will be incorporated into their citizen science project at the end of the curriculum.
This lesson plan is a component of the EXPLAIN stage of the 5E Learning Model for the overall curriculum.
Objectives
After this lesson, students will be able to:
- Ask questions and define which questions can be answered with their data.
- Enter data into a spreadsheet.
- Represent data through methods ranging from creating visual graphs to calculating means to performing a linear regression.
- Make predictions about the implications of their results.
Information for Classroom Use:
Students should know or be familiar with:
- Excel functions
- Terminology from the “Evolutionary Principles” lesson
- Statistical calculations and/or tests ranging from calculating a mean to performing a linear regression, as appropriate for the class
Teachers should know or be familiar with:
- Statistical calculations and/or tests ranging from calculating a mean to performing a linear regression, as appropriate for the class
This lesson is about 50-60 minutes or one class period.
- Computers with Excel
- Lab notebooks/folders
See Grade Versions of This Lesson
Our community members have contributed to our curriculum through updating versions modified to fit their grade or age group. Browse our library for lessons categorized by classes ranging from grades 6 to 16.
More on Data and Interpretation
There is always more to learn about data analysis and interpretation. Make sure you check our lesson “Picking Plants for the Monarch Highway”, which is designed to further the students understanding of data.