Unit 8, Lesson 9
Mean
Grade 6
Preparation
Lesson Narrative
In this lesson, students find and interpret the mean of a distribution (MP2) as the amount each member of the group would get if everything is distributed equally. This is sometimes called the “leveling out” or the “fair share” interpretation of the mean.
Here students do not yet make an explicit connection between the mean and the idea of “typical,” or between the mean and the center of a distribution. These connections will be made in upcoming lessons.
- Comprehend the words “mean” and “average” as a measure of center that summarizes the data using a single number.
- Explain (using words and other representations) how to calculate the mean for a numerical data set.
- Interpret diagrams that represent finding the mean as a process of leveling out the data to find a “fair share.”
Let’s explore the mean of a data set and what it tells us.
Required Materials
Activity 2
Required Preparation
For the digital version of the activity, acquire devices that can run the applet.