Support Materials --

Math for All-Plus

Information, Please!

During this 30-minute math program you will help your children:

understand how "pollsters" use sampling to generate statistics
learn how information is collected, represented and analyzed
use fun activities to collect and organize information by doing your own surveys

Activity #1

The Most Popular Bean!
Materials:

Beans or small candies of the same size, but of two different colors mixed in a ratio other than 50-50, i.e., pinto and red beans, M&M's or jelly beans
Paper lunch sack
Paper and pencil

In this activity, using different colored beans, you will help your child understand how pollsters, by just using a small "sampling," are able to predict who will win an election or which soft drink is the most popular.
Without your child watching, fill a small paper sack with two different colored beans - about 100 beans - mixed in a ratio other than 50-50. Help your child do the following.
Without looking in the bag, take out 10 beans. How many of each color did you get? Can you predict how many of each color are in the bag? Write your first prediction on a piece of paper. Record the number of beans of each color you took out of the bag, then put all of the beans back in the bag and shake to mix will. Do this two more times so that you have recorded three samples for each color. Add the samplings together. Now, how many of each color did you take out of the bag? Based on this larger sampling, you may want to make a second "revised" prediction.
Imagine the beans in this small bag represent votes in an election between Ms. Red and Mr. Pinto. Based on your sampling, who will win? Find out if your prediction is right by counting the beans of each color to see who was elected, Mr. Red or Mr. Pinto.
Additional Activities:
Ask five people in your class, troop or club, "What is your favorite pet?" Based on this sampling, predict which pet is the most popular for the whole group. Check to see if your sample was on target by asking everyone in the group to vote for their favorite pet.

Activity #2

Can You See Data?
Materials:

Three random number generators(dice)
Paper
Pencil

For this activity, using three random number generators - more often called dice - to generate information, you will help your child practice organizing and analyzing the information.
To begin, you want to organize your information. What is the smallest sum you can get from tossing the dice and adding the three numbers? What is the largest sum you can get from all three? In mathematics this is called the "range." To organize the information, you are going to "plot" the numbers, so draw a horizontal line on paper. Starting with the smallest number at the left and moving to your right, write each number in the range. (Try to space the numbers evenly along the line.) Toss the dice, add the three numbers, and place an "X" above the number that is the sum. Do this 20-30 times, placing the "X" in a column above the appropriate sums for each toss. Which number occurred the most? This is called the mode. Which number is in the middle (has as many "X's" before it as after)? This is called the median. Find the average of all the sums by adding the sums and then dividing by the total number of "X's". This is called the mean.
Additional Activities:
You have just learned to use a "line plot." Some other ways of representing data are pie charts, line graphs and bar graphs(see samples below). See if youcan find examples in newspapers and magazines. Can you identify the range, mode, median and mean in each one? Each type of graph helps you visualize information in a different way. Can you find a graph that depicts a budget?

Activity #3

To Lace or Not to Lace - Shoes?
Materials:

Paper
Pencil

In this activity you and your child will do a survey to find the types of shoe lacing people around you are wearing. Count the number of people wearing shoes with black or brown laces; the number wearing different colored shoelaces; and the number wearing shoes with no laces. Choose your own method to organize your information. You may want to record by using "tally marks."
What can you conclude from your survey? Did the results surprise you? If a shoe company hired you to find out what kind of shoe was most popular, what would you do first?