This week’s lessons are about geometric probability, characterizing data, data displays, and matrices.
Materials Needed
Each lesson has an answer sheet that provides guidance on the lesson and describes its key concept and questions. Use this sheet to check your answers.
The student sheet can be printed and completed by the student, or the student can write the answers on a blank sheet of paper.
You will also need:
- Paper
- Pencil
- Graphing calculator
Activity 1: Geometric Probability
So far, you have learned how to find lengths, areas, and volumes.
Use these geometric measures to solve problems such as finding the probability that a randomly chosen point inside a figure lies within a shaded portion, and that a bus is waiting at a bus stop.
Activity 2: Characterizing Data
Descriptive statistics is the branch of statistics that is concerned with characterizing or describing a set of data. This can be accomplished through data displays, measures of central tendency, and measures of dispersion.
Use this lesson as an introduction to the tools and techniques of descriptive statistics, which will be helpful in lessons to follow.
Activity 3: Data Displays
A data display is a tool for presenting data visually. A well-constructed data display makes it possible to understand key features of a data set quickly and easily.
Use this lesson to examine the most common data displays, including bar graphs, histograms, line graphs, circle graphs, stem-and-leaf plots, and box-and-whisker plots.
Activity 4: Appropriate Data Displays
Different data displays have different purposes.
Use this lesson to consider when to use various types of graphs, examine the characteristics that can make a graph misleading, and evaluate data displays in the media.
Activity 5: Matrices
Matrices have a wide range of uses in mathematics. They can represent transformations, and are a convenient tool for solving systems of equations.
Use this lesson to learn three basic matrix operations: addition, subtraction, and scalar multiplication, with an emphasis on the use of matrices for organizing data
Extend the Lesson: Math at Work
Explore Math at Work on the HMH YouTube channel: Math Meets Fashion
