Our next online unit was data analysis. What is data analysis, you may ask?
Exactly what it sounds like. Collecting data on a particular topic and analyzing it to create connections and patterns. Data Analysis is an essential part of today’s society. It is used every day by meteorologists who collect various amounts of information on humidity, temperature, etc. to predict what the future may bring.
There are many different activities that you can do to help introduce kids to this critical field. The ones we did not only fostered a love for the field in the kids, but they also helped me learn some new skills as well.
Our first activity was about collecting data bout their own homes. I gave them 5 minutes to count up the number of chairs, windows, doors, and rooms in their houses. We created a spreadsheet of our data so that we could utilize the methods in Google Sheets to analyze our data. We determined the average, maximum, and minimum for each category.
Another dataset you can collect could be about the different shows that everyone watches or games they play. This activity is so beneficial because there are so many variations that you can come up with. Additionally, it keeps the kids engaged while introducing them to new terms such as mean and range. This activity helped show me how diverse each one of us is.
HAVE FUN!!!
