Handling Data Problems
This is a series of three activities for pupils based around making an argument to support a hypothesis. The pupils choose data from the supplied set and use the appropriate means to present it. The activities do not have a single ‘correct’ answer, and pupils are encouraged to create some form of presentation to support their argument.

The activities are:
  • By-pass or High Street? Where should we put a speed camera?
  • Bus or train journey? What’s the best way to get to work?
  • Cambridge or Kendal? What’s the best town to move to?

Year 10 Objectives covered:
  • Independently devise a suitable plan for a substantial statistical project and justify the decisions
  • Use an appropriate range of statistical methods to explore and summarise data; including estimating and finding the mean, median, quartiles and interquartile range for large data sets (by calculation or using a cumulative frequency diagram)
  • Select, construct and modify, on paper and using ICT, suitable graphical representation to progress an enquiry and identify key features present in the data; including cumulative frequency tables and diagrams, box plots and scatter graphs and lines of best fit (by eye)
  • Examine critically the results of a statistical enquiry; justify choice of statistical representations and relate summarised data to the questions being explored
The data for each activity is in the form of a spreadsheet so it can be manipulated, sorted and graphed; or it could be imported into a graphing software package. You can encourage your pupils to be selective about which sections of the data are relevant to the task. The activities have opportunities for pupils to work in small collaborative groups. Each activity comes with its own set of lesson notes.

Download resources