Unit 8, Lesson 3
Representing Data Graphically
Grade 6
Preparation
Lesson Narrative
In this lesson, students represent distributions of numerical data with dot plots after organizing them into frequency tables. Using graphical representations of distributions, they continue to develop a spatial understanding of distributions in preparation for understanding the concepts of center and spread in future lessons. Students make use of the structure of dot plots to describe distributions and to draw conclusions about the data (MP7).
An optional activity is included to remind students how bar graphs can be used to visualize categorical data.
- Comprehend that the word “frequency” refers to the number of times that a particular value occurs in a data set.
- Create and interpret a dot plot to answer statistical questions about a numerical data set.
- Justify (in writing) whether a dot plot is an appropriate way to display a given data set, paying attention to whether the data set is numerical or categorical.
Let’s represent data with dot plots and bar graphs.
Required Preparation
1 sticky note and 1 dot sticker for each student. Straightedges should be made available to create dot plots.
The distribution of a data set tells how many times each value occurs.
- In the data set blue, blue, green, blue, orange, the distribution is 3 blues, 1 green, and 1 orange.
-
This dot plot shows the distribution for the data set 6, 10, 7, 35, 7, 36, 32, 10, 7, 35 kilograms.
The frequency of a data value is how many times it occurs in the data set.
For example, there are 20 dogs in a park. The table shows the frequency of each color.
| dog color | frequency |
|---|---|
| white | 4 |
| brown | 7 |
| black | 3 |
| multi-color | 6 |