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Session 5, Part C: Using Line Plots
 
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Session 5, Part C:
Using Line Plots (30 minutes)

In This Part: Creating a Line Plot | Means from the Line Plots
Balancing Excesses and Deficits

Remember the line plots you worked with in previous sessions? If you reshuffle your stacks of coins just a bit, you can create a line plot representation that corresponds to the number of coins in each of the nine stacks, which will allow us to explore other interpretations of the mean. Note 5

To do this yourself, create a line plot on your paper or poster board. Across the bottom of the page, draw a horizontal line with 10 vertical tick marks numbered from 1 to 10 (placed far enough apart for an adhesive dot or note to fit between each). Your number line should look like this:

Number Line 1-10

Set up your 45 coins in this ordered allocation:

2-8

Now arrange the stacks of coins on the paper above the number that corresponds to the height of each stack, like this:

moved stacks

Note that the 2 stacks of size 4 and the 2 stacks of size 6 are placed above the same number.

To form your line plot, replace each of the stacks with an adhesive dot or note. You should now have a line plot that looks like this:

Each dot in the line plot corresponds to a stack of that specified size.

The following Interactive Illustration recaps the transition from physical stacks of coins to a graphical line plot representation of the stacks.

This activity requires the Flash plug-in, which you can download for free from Macromedia's Web site. For a non-interactive version, review the illustrations above.


 

Problem C1

Solution  

Use the method described above to create a line plot for the following ordered allocation of 45 coins:


 

Problem C2

Solution  

Create a line plot for this allocation of 45 coins:


 

Problem C3

Solution  

Create a line plot for this equal-shares allocation of 45 coins:



video thumbnail
 

Video Segment
In this video segment, participants compare their ordered stacks of snap-cubes to a line plot of the same data. Watch this segment after completing Problems C1-C3 to observe the transition from a physical representation of the data to a graphical representation.

What is one stack of snap-cubes equivalent to on the line plot of the data?

If you're using a VCR, you can find the first part of this this segment on the session video approximately 5 minutes and 44 seconds after the Annenberg Media logo. The second part of this segment begins approximately 8 minutes and 1 second after the Annenberg Media logo.

 

Next > Part C (Continued): Means from the Line Plot

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