This activity, which features an Information Gap routine (also Info Gap routine), gives students an opportunity to solve problems about data represented on line plots. In both sets of cards, there is a partially complete line plot and some unknown data.

This activity uses MLR4 Information Gap.

For the first set of cards, the Problem Card has the unknown data and the Data Card has a partially complete line plot. Monitor for students who request:

• All the information on the Data Card and create a complete line plot, which they may use to answer the question.
• Only the information they need to answer the question about the heaviest apricot and the most common weight.

For the second set of cards, the Problem Card has the partially complete line plot and the Data Card has information to determine the unknown data. Here students likely will need to communicate with each other as the information about the most common weight is vital to solve the problem, but the student with the Problem Card may not think to ask about this.

The Info Gap routine allows students to refine the language they use to ask increasingly more precise questions until they get the information they need (MP6).

• “What kinds of questions were the most useful to ask?” (Card 1: I asked for the heaviest apricot and then realized it was on my card. Then I asked for the most common weight and could solve the problem. Card 2: I needed to find out what the rest of the apricot weights were. I tried asking for that but my partner did not have that information. My partner told me she had some information about the heaviest apricot and the most common weight, and once I found that out I was able to solve the problem.)
• Invite students to share their strategy for solving one of the problems.
• Consider asking “Did anyone solve the problem in a different way?”

The purpose of this optional activity is for students to answer questions about a line plot, using the same context as in the previous activity. Students relate repeated addition of the same fraction to multiplication which they studied in a previous unit. They also address a question about the sum of all of the data. Because there is a lot of data, there are many viable strategies to answer this question and the Activity Synthesis focuses on sharing these strategies. 

When students solve problems about the apricot weights, using the line plot, they reason abstractly and quantitatively (MP2).

• Invite previously selected students to share their equation for the total weight of the -ounce apricots.
• Display the equation:
• “Can you use this information to help decide whether or not the apricots weigh more than one pound?” (Yes. There are 10 more apricots, and except for 1, they all weigh more than an ounce each, so that will be more than 16 ounces for sure. I added up all the weights and it was more than 16 ounces. The 5 apricots that each weigh ounces together are more than pound. So the 5 heavier apricots together are also more than pound, and altogether the apricots weigh more than 1 pound.)