Madison County Math 7th Grade

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Welcome Back!

We are so glad to meet to you a second time this year.
Please give us a comment and let us know how you math classes are going this year.
Thanks for being here and for "ALL" you do.
Tina, Rhonda, and Carol

Here is a link back to the first blog: Http://mc7math.blogspot.com

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LoTi Resources

Baby Name Voyager
LoTi 3: Cool! Cool! This website lets students interpret area graphs based on the popularity of names over the last 100 years. Wonderful, unique example of line graphs at work.

What's in a Name
Students explore sets of names and create bar graphs, pictographs, glyphs, and circle graphs. They also find the range, compute measures of center, and create box and whisker plots. The process standards of Representation and Communication play a major role in these lessons.

The Game of SKUNK
In this lesson, students practice decision-making skills leading to a better understanding of choice versus chance and building the foundation of mathematical probability. This lesson is adapted from an article by Dan Brutlag, "Choice and Chance in Life: The Game of SKUNK," which appeared in Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, Vol. 1, No. 1 (April 1994), pp. 28-33. LOTI 3

What is the Chance of Rain?
There are long-term events that happen year after year and affect the rainfall pattern. The Bureau of Meteorology analyzes the past patterns and tries to predict the future patterns. The predictions are presented as probabilities (chances) and published to help people make informed decisions. LoTI 2

Explorations with Chance
LoTi 3: In this lesson, students analyze the fairness of certain games by examining the probabilities of the outcomes. The explorations provide opportunities for the learning phases of predicting results, playing the games, and calculating probability ratios. Students should have had prior experiences with simple probability investigations, including flipping coins, drawing items from a set, and making tree diagrams. They should understand that the probability of an event is the ratio of the number of successful outcomes to the number of possible outcomes.

Heads or Tails
A virtual coin flip aids in learning about probability. Level 2

Interpreting Graphs

Bar Graph - Enter data to create a bar graph, then manipulate the graph's maximum and minimum values

Fun and Sun Rent-a-Car - students use tables, graphs, linear functions to solve a real-world problem

Graphing Jeopardy Game - [this link opens on a new page] Review graphing terbs and information this fun way

Interactive Graphs - large number of interactive graphs related to social studies topics

Magic Bullets: Chemistry vs. Cancer - In this activity students will work with data about cancer deaths. The purpose of the activity is to give students some experience in reading and interpreting graphs. There is a worksheet associated with the data sets

Using Graphs to Understand Data - online quiz

Graphs and charts - four different graphs and charts for you to consider

Circle Grapher - Use this tool to graph data sets in a circle graph. You can input your own data or alter a pre-made data set

VIDEO

The High Stakes World of StatisticsThis 26 minute video from United Streaming (requires membership) contains 8 segments. They are targeted to grades 9-12, but some segments would be suitable for middle school.Description:What's the chance you'll draw a face card out of a 52-card deck? That's one of many questions related to probability! Find out about probability and more. © 2002 Standard Deviants

Are you looking for probability videos that you can view online? By clicking on the following links, you can watch free online videos on different topics. Some probability videos are followed by online quizzes and interactive games designed to reinforce the concepts taught in each movie.

http://www.math-videos-online.com/probability-videos.html

Probability Problems about a Number Cube
Probability Problem with Two Dice
Probability Video Involving a Spinner
Probability Video with Marbles
Probability of Independent Events
Permutation and Combination Videos

Videos from other teachers:
Box and Whisker Plots (Grades 6 & 7) Brian Domroes, Spotsylvania County Schools middle school mathematics specialist, on techniques for engaging students with box and whisker plots

Calculators and Statistics (Grades 6 & 7) Eurice Dawley, of Norfolk City Public Schools demonstrates a lesson on mean and the scientific calculator.

http://www.mathtrain.tv/
Mathtrain.TV is a free educational "kids teaching kids" project from Mr. Marcos & his students at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica, CA

Spy Guys Interactive - Understanding and Interpreting Graphs - Click Skip Intro, then select Lessons, and then click on Lesson 10

Spy Guys Interactive - Probability - Click Skip Intro, then select Lessons, and then click on Lesson 19

READ ALONGS

Interpreting Line Graphs - [this link opens on a new page] explore line graphs. (Author - Michael Naylor)

Push Ups - [this link opens on a new page] collect data to put on a line graph. (Author - Sandi King)

Piece Of Pie - [this link opens on a new page] display data using a circle graph. (Author - Sandi King)

Basketball Debate - [this link opens on a new page] explore the meaning of average (or mean) and relate these concepts to real world experiences. (Author - Michael Naylor)

Party Comedian - [this link opens on a new page] find and use the median of a set of data. (Author - Kristy Rousseau)

Heads Up Probability - [this link opens on a new page] use tree diagrams as models for predicting outcomes and the likelihood of events using coins. (Author - Michaél Dunnivant)

Leap Frog - [this link opens on a new page] design an experiment to answer a question, collect information, and interpret the results using charts. (Author - Michaél Dunnivant)

Me Too Probability - [this link opens on a new page] use a tree diagram to display possible outcomes of who will come to the party. (Author - Michaél Dunnivant)

On Stage Probability - [this link opens on a new page] use tree diagrams to display the possible outcomes of casting a play. (Author - Michaél Dunnivant)

Making Predictions

Adjustable Spinner - Students can create a game spinner with variable sized sectors to look at experimental and theoretical probabilities. Parameters: Sizes of sectors, number of sectors, number of trials

Analyzing game probabilities - online quiz

Marbles - Students learn about sampling with and without replacement by modeling drawing marbles from a bag. Parameters: Number and color of marbles in the bag, replacement rule

Two Colors - Students choose between three boxes and choose one marble from the box to look at conditional probabilities. Parameters: Number of trials

Webquest

Just for your instruction!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/
Online way to gather data

For teachers:
http://exploringdata.cqu.edu.au/

SwivelExplore, edit, and compare existing public datasets, charts and graphs or upload your own at this social networking site that brings data to the masses for sharing and interpretation. Imagine the possibilities for your students!

Group Graphing -
http://www.fi.edu/qa98/me5/me5.html

Conducting a poll of their classmates http://www.fi.edu/qa98/me5/me5.html

http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol6/intro_probability.html
This lesson from Mrs. Glosser's Math Goodies contains a nice explanation of simple probability and some questions to test your knowledge.