Social Network Learning Activity
Introduction: Students will collect data and analyze the measures of dispersion.
Content Area: Algebra 1 (7th - 8th grade)
Objectives: The student will be able to...
Standards Addressed:
Virginia Standards of Learning - A.9: The student, given a set of data, will interpret variation in real-world contexts and calculate and interpret mean absolute deviation, standard deviation, and z-scores.
Relative Advantage: The students will take ownership of their learning by gathering their own data through the social network of Twitter. The students also will take pride in their presentation and blog entry since they are published to a social media items where members outside of the class can view and respond.
Timeline: 1-2 class periods (85 minutes each)
Materials:
Grouping Strategies for Technology: The school encourages students to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and headphones to school. In addition to the students' smart phones, tablets, laptops and Chromebooks, the classroom has 3 laptops and 15 iPads available for students to use.
Learning Activities:
Content Area: Algebra 1 (7th - 8th grade)
Objectives: The student will be able to...
- use social networking to collect data
- calculate the mean of a data set
- calculate the mean absolute deviation of a data set
- calculate the standard deviation of a data set
- calculate the z-score for an element in the data set
- create a presentation about measures of dispersion using VoiceThread (either with text or verbal narration)
- write a blog entry to discuss the results
Standards Addressed:
Virginia Standards of Learning - A.9: The student, given a set of data, will interpret variation in real-world contexts and calculate and interpret mean absolute deviation, standard deviation, and z-scores.
Relative Advantage: The students will take ownership of their learning by gathering their own data through the social network of Twitter. The students also will take pride in their presentation and blog entry since they are published to a social media items where members outside of the class can view and respond.
Timeline: 1-2 class periods (85 minutes each)
Materials:
- Twitter account
- VoiceThread account
- Blogger account
- Graphing Calculator
Grouping Strategies for Technology: The school encourages students to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and headphones to school. In addition to the students' smart phones, tablets, laptops and Chromebooks, the classroom has 3 laptops and 15 iPads available for students to use.
Learning Activities:
- Approximately 1 week before the unit, students will use Twitter to begin gathering data. An example is shown below.
7th & 8th graders, please help gather data for a class project. What is your height in inches? Tweet your answer to #HowTall
— Amy Spencer (@MyMathMatters) October 15, 2016
- Students will use the data gathered from Twitter replies to calculate mean, mean absolute deviation, standard deviation. Students will also select 4 individual pieces of data to calculate the z-score of each.
- After students have calculated their information, they will create a VoiceThread presentation (images of work with voice explanations) explaining how they made the calculations. An example is shown below.
- Students will then be asked to create a blog post about their feelings, understandings, likes and/or dislikes for measures of dispersion. Students will submit the URL from their blog post to the forum on Google Classroom for the teacher to track and students to note when a new post occurs. Students will be expected to read and reply to at least 2 classmates' blogs. A screenshot of the example blog is shown below.
Assessment: Students will have formative assessment by checking their answers in the graphing calculator. The teacher and other students will provide feedback about the presentation. Students will have a summative assessment including measures of dispersion at the conclusion of the statistics unit.
Adaptations for Learners with Special Needs: ESL students and special education students will be permitted to complete the calculations as a group with the instructional assistant in a separate classroom to encourage discussion and clarification during process.
Adaptations for Learners with Special Needs: ESL students and special education students will be permitted to complete the calculations as a group with the instructional assistant in a separate classroom to encourage discussion and clarification during process.