Statistical Investigations

 As part of our Healthy Body, Healthy Mind inquiry, we have been thinking about different ways to measure our strength and fitness. 

We revisited some learning around heart rates. We had another go at recording our heart rate before and after exercise. This time, we put all that data on a dot plot. This type of graph makes it easy to see patterns! 

 

The beep test might spark fear in the hearts of many, but we absolutely loved it. Everybody gave it their all. This left us with a really interesting set of data. We looked at a different type of graph - the Stem & Leaf. We learned about how to analyse data by finding the range, mean, median and mode. We also learnt that data always has limitations but as long as you know and make clear what they are, that's all good! 

Next we looked at how to plan an investigation. Staying with the idea of fitness data, we thought of exercises that would be easy to measure. We also talked about the idea of sampling. We don't have time to measure everyone! Here are some of the things we measured:

Plank

Sit-ups

Sprint course

Standing jump

Pull-ups

Here is an example of the plan we used:

We are data detectives! Watch out for more data analysis to come. We'll do the beep test again and compare our results later in the term. 

Data Talks

Once a week, our Maths sessions are all about digging into data. This week we connected with some other learning around environmental sustainability and biodiversity. We examined an interesting graph which shows the levels of native or exotic species in Wellington, Kāpiti and Wairarapa. 

After a whole class discussion, we moved into our tuakana-teina learning groups to discuss. We set a collaboration goal before recording what we noticed and what we wondered. This particular graph invited us to use our knowledge of fractions and percentages, as well as reading multiple variables (land cover, population density, species richness). You can read more about Data Talks here. 

Where we Dance! Interpreting the Statistics.

Where we Dance! Interpreting the Statistics.

This was really interesting to start our Inquiry because we found out a lot of information from a simple survey.  The key findings after we analysed the data were:

• Most kids feel pretty safe in their neighbourhood our community
• The majority of kids know their neighbours, at least one or two houses
• Many kids are driven around the neighbourhood
• Most would prefer to walk, scooter or bike

The main purpose of the survey was to find out what 3rd places are used by kids.  It was interesting to note that the beach and parks are popular but that many kids said they don't have any other 3rd places at all.

We are looking at trying to develop connection points in the community; places for kids to meet informally (bumpy places), places they might want to stay in and return to (sticky places).  We think that children should be encouraged to play together and find each other in these places.  The more they do this, the safer the neighbourhood!

What ideas do you have? Please leave a comment.