Summary+Statistics+&+Probability

Making Sense of Summary Statistics & Probability: It's the Variable that Matters! (Gr. 5-6) Presenter: Richard Dunne

Descriptive statistics: "one pile has 5 cups" Summary statistic: tells you something about all of the data "the smallest pile has 2 cups" Mean: gives you a rough idea of how many are in each pile (summary statistic) Type 1 6c / 3c= 2 Type 2 6c / 3= 2 c Summary statistics are more useful than descriptive statistics because they give us a lot of information at once x bar is symbol for mean of x -have students use symbols-math is a symbolic language -median: emphasize crossing and writing when putting in order (to teach systematic way of not leaving # out) median value is the middle value when they are written in order of size -mode: where is the most number of the same number (still write in order) most popular value -range: difference between largest value of x and the smallest value of x Summary statistics: mean, median, mode, range

Probability: cups and sticks sticks divided into different lengths (top stick is the one you use to say 'bigger' 'smaller' or 'same' Example: put out 6 cups; hold up 2 part stick above 3 part stick; 'every time you see 3 cups, replace with 2 cups'--taught 2/3 of 6 outcome equally likely favorable outcome cube with one to six: equally likely rectangular prism with one to six: rectangle sides more likely than square sides P (3)= (how many ways are there of getting a 3 compared to how many outcomes are there?): 1/6 P (Event)= number of favorable outcomes over number of possible outcomes trial vs event: event is what could happen, if it were to happen, trial is what DOES happen

Handout with Kim's Notes: