Brick Playbook: Parent Edition
Graph Track
Learn to make inferences from data sets.

Objective:
Child will be able to represent data in a bar graph and use the data to make inferences about the data.
Essential Question(s):
How can we gather data about similar things and compare it?
Special Materials:
Pencil and paper and sticky notes for labeling the graph
Bricks Required:
16×16 plates, 1xn bricks
Project Structure
Engage/Explain:
- This project should be done with a group.
- Begin by asking the children about things they like, looking for some broad categories such as after-school activities, cookies, reading.
- Choose a category and ask for more specifics: “Who likes chocolate chip cookies? Oatmeal?” Ask children to commit to one answer and create a table on collecting the data (how many prefer chocolate chip, how many prefer oatmeal, etc.).
- Ask comparing questions about the data, then about how children compared the data (addition or subtraction).
- Introduce bar graphs as a way to visually see differences in data, building a brick bar graph and reviewing labeling, units, etc.
- Asks additional questions about the data, asking children to group. “How many prefer a cookie that has chocolate?” for instance, would group together Oreos and chocolate chip.
Explore/Explain:
- Ask children for ideas of two or three other things to count (hair color, favorite snack, etc.). Guide children to grouping categories (“fruit” instead of apples or grapes, etc).
- Make a table collecting the information.
- In pairs, have children choose one of the data sets to visually represent using bricks.
- Ask children to build a bar chart, then label the axes.
Engage/Explain:
- Ask children to compare their data and take notes using their bar chart:
- Which category has the most?
- Which category has the least?
- How many more in category A than category C?
- How many when two categories are combined?