GMC7: Interpreting and representing with mathematical diagrams
This list contains a collection of resources to help meet General Mathematical Competency 7 (GMC7). More resources to support T level Science can be found on our T Level science resource packages page.
GMC7 states:
Students should:
- Understand ways to present data in the appropriate format, including:
- table
- scatter graph
- line graph
- bar chart
- box and whisker plot
- histograms
- Be able to provide supporting documentation in different formats, for example, clinical observation charts
- Use mathematical processes: calculations, diagrams and data representations to support the collection of clinical measurements
- Understand the purpose of different types of statistical databases and software tools used to integrate, analyse and interpret data
- Understand the principles of methods of statistical analysis and interpretation that can be applied to data:
Interpreting Bar Charts, Pie Charts, Box and Whisker Plots S5
In this resource, students will learn to understand and interpret bar charts, pie charts, and box and whisker plots. This session is in two linked parts. The first is matching pie charts to bar charts and secondly matching box and whisker plots to bar charts.
Each part of the session starts with a whole group discussion to compare the newly-introduced type of representation, looking at its advantages, disadvantages and practical applications. Students then work in pairs. No prior knowledge is assumed, though it is helpful if students have encountered some of these ideas before.
Interpreting Frequency Graphs, Cumulative Frequency Graphs, Box and Whisker Plots S6
In this resource, students interpret frequency graphs, cumulative frequency graphs, and box and whisker plots, all for large samples, and then see how a large number of data points can result in the graph being approximated by a continuous distribution
Food for Thought – The Eat Well Plate
The everyday context of food serves as a vehicle for engaging learners in exploring the mathematical ideas of ratios, percentages, fractions, and pie charts which are useful in their vocational areas. Students are asked to agree the main food groups that might be suitable for a healthy diet and then represent the proportions of each food group mathematically and pictorially.
Correlation
This resource is about the relationship between two quantities (correlation). If the two quantities are height of father and height of son, then we often want to know the extent to which 'tall fathers have tall sons'. Two quantities may be correlated quite strongly while another two quantities may be correlated quite weakly.
In this unit students will learn how to assess the extent to which two things are correlated. They will be able to use a mathematical formula for deriving a single figure that represents how strong the connection is between two quantities.
More specifically the objectives for this unit are that students will:
(a) be able to calculate Spearman's rank correlation coefficient from suitable data;
(b) be able to recognise and distinguish between positive, negative and zero correlation;
(c) understand that a significant correlation between two variables does not necessarily imply a direct causal relationship between the variables.
