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The purpose of this activity is for students to understand relationships between variables and to use data in a scatter plot to support their understanding. Students should be thinking about how the variables might be related and how trends visible in scatter plots can suggest a relationship. For this lesson, it is not important for students to use formal language or have definitive answers about the presence of a relationship. In the associated Algebra 1 lesson, students will develop more formal language to describe the presence of relationships and categorize them as strong or weak as well as positive or negative. Students must reason abstractly and quantitatively (MP2) when they reason about the relationship between the variables.
Allow students to work independently to complete the activity. Tell students to work on the first question before analyzing the graphs in the second question.
For each pair of variables, do you expect there to be a relationship? That is, do you think a change in one variable is accompanied by a change in the other variable? How do you expect the second variable to change if the first variable is increased?
Some data is collected for each pair of variables listed and represented by a scatter plot. For each pair of variables, how do the scatter plots support or contradict your answers from the previous question?
The purpose of this discussion is for students to understand relationships between variables, and how data are used to support claims of a relationship. Here are sample questions to promote class discussion.
To Copy (from Blackline Masters)
Correlations Cards
In this partner activity, students take turns sorting different pairs of variables and scatter plots. A sorting task gives students opportunities to analyze representations, statements, and structures closely and make connections (MP2, MP7).
Monitor for students who go beyond using the values on the axes to create the matches. Students should be able to recognize variables that have a positive or negative trend as well as whether the relationship is best represented by a linear model.
Tell students that the cards contain either a pair of variables or a scatter plot and that they will take turns matching the pair of variables to the corresponding scatter plot. Explain how to set up and do the activity. If time allows, demonstrate the following steps with a student as a partner.
Consider demonstrating productive ways to agree or disagree, for example by explaining mathematical thinking or asking clarifying questions.
Arrange students in groups of 2. Give each group a set of 12 slips cut from the blackline master.
Your teacher will give you a set of cards. Take turns with your partner to match each scatter plot with a pair of variables.
The purpose of this discussion is to make connections using students’ knowledge of the relationships between the pairs of variables. Select 2–3 groups to share one of their sets of cards and how they matched a scatter plot with a pair of variables. Discuss as many different sets of cards as the time allows.