Unit 8, Lesson 15
Quartiles and Interquartile Range
Grade 6
Preparation
Lesson Narrative
In this lesson, students learn that they can further decompose a data set into four equal groups and use the quartiles to describe a distribution. They learn that the three quartiles along with the maximum and minimum values of the data set make up a five-number summary.
Students also explore the range and interquartile range (IQR) of a distribution as two ways to measure its spread. Students reason abstractly and quantitatively (MP2) as they find and interpret the IQR as describing the distribution of the middle half of the data.
- Calculate the range and interquartile range (IQR) of a data set and interpret (orally and in writing) what they tell us about the situation.
- Comprehend that “interquartile range (IQR)” is another measure of variability that describes the span of the middle half of the data.
- Identify and interpret (in writing) the numbers in the five-number summary for a data set, that is, the minimum, first quartile (Q1), median (Q2), third quartile (Q3), and maximum.
Let's look at other measures for describing distributions.
Required Preparation
None