Interpreting data: muddying the waters

This is a problem solving lesson, designed to assess how well students are able to:

• Interpret data and evaluate statistical summaries
• Critique someone else’s interpretations of data and evaluations of statistical summaries

In addition, the lesson highlights some of the common abuses of statistics and charts found in the media.

The lesson is set in the context of a Riverside leisure centre. The manager of the centre has noticed a fall in the number of visitors and an increase in pollution in the river. He writes to the environment agency to ask them to clean up the river. There is a role play where the case is taken to court and evidence is produced from the owner of the factory. Students must weigh the evidence and conclude if the manager of the leisure centre has a good case against the factory.

There is a final task about a wind farm being built adjacent to a campsite. Students apply what they have learned in the previous session to help them assess if the wind farm owner is justified in claiming that the wind farm has resulted in a loss of business for them.

This is a problem solving lesson from the Mathematics Assessment Resource Service, a collaboration between UC Berkeley and the Shell Centre team at the University of Nottingham. Further information on the collection is given here.