The purpose of this activity is for students to gather and organize categorical data about their classmates’ preferred way to travel.

To make the data collection process faster, students collect their responses within their group first, and then each group shares  their responses to make a class data list. As an alternative, students can collect all of the data on their own. In that case, students’ names can be pre-printed in a table for them, or they could only write the person’s first name and way of travel abbreviation (given in the Task Statement) in the table. 

In the Activity Synthesis, students analyze the advantages and disadvantages of showing data in a list or table like this. Then the responses are counted and displayed for each category. This will make it easier for students to use the data to create a scaled picture graph data in the next activity.

• “What’s helpful about having this data in the form of a list? What's not helpful?” (We know the way each person would like to travel. It’s hard to see how many people would like to travel each way.)
• Create a two-column table with six rows. Label the rows with the travel choices in the survey. Lead students to use the class data list to count how many students chose each travel choice and record the numbers in the table. Instruct students to make their own copy of this table to use in the next lesson.

The purpose of this activity is for students to apply understandings from previous lessons to create a picture graph with a scale of 2 to display the categorical data they gathered. Students are guided to use a scale of 2 but can choose their own symbol. Depending on the data, students may need to use a half symbol in order to represent an odd number of students choosing a specific method of travel. This idea is discussed in the Activity Synthesis.

Students will use their scaled picture graphs again in the next lesson.

• Display selected student work.
• “How does this graph represent the survey data from our class?”
• “How did _____ represent the number of students who picked a way of travel when it was an odd number?”
• “What questions do you have about creating a scaled picture graph?” (Could a face represent 3 students or 5 students? Can you use whatever picture you want to represent 2 students?)