Teaching Box As Well As Whisker Plots

Image: ruthmaas.com

When I wrote Long Live Stem together with Leaf, I'd been challenged to uncovering a practical application of stalk together with foliage diagrams exterior the maths classroom. After extensive googling - together with helpful input from twitter - the alone examples I could uncovering were motorbus together with prepare timetables. But I argued that existent life application isn't the last all together with destination all.

Stem together with foliage diagrams were invented inwards the 1970s past times Consistent Mathematics if you lot desire to know why). This is a lovely activeness inwards a lesson introducing the thought of median, precisely non hence effective inwards a box plot lesson. Because fifty-fifty though you lot tin purpose a bedsheet together with string to larn the students to hold off similar a box plot, if they’re non appropriately spaced out (ie if there’s no scale) hence it’s non a box plot. If you lot desire a proper box plot you’ll accept to truly mensurate the heights together with depict a scale on the floor.

An choice thought (inspired past times this post) involves newspaper aeroplanes. You’ll necessitate a large infinite for this - the schoolhouse hall or playground. Tape (or depict inwards chalk) a long scale on the floor. Have each of your pupils brand a newspaper aeroplane, write their elevate on it, together with throw it from the outset of the scale. Leave the aeroplanes where they land. Once all pupils accept thrown their aeroplane, you lot tin depict or record a box plot on the flooring or hence the planes to stand upwardly for the distance flown. Pupils volition last able to run into which quartile their plane landed in. Hopefully ane futurity engineer volition throw an amazing outlier which volition brand a skilful give-and-take point! You could fifty-fifty separate the flat inwards one-half together with do ii box plots on the flooring side past times side, hence the flat could hash out which squad had meliorate aeroplanes together with which team’s planes were to a greater extent than consistent.

If you lot similar practical activities, here’s ii more:

• This uncomplicated newspaper folding activeness is a overnice introduction to median together with quartiles.

Source: bigideasmath.com

• This Cheerios activity explores mean, median, manner together with box plots.

Resources
There’s surprisingly few skilful box plot resources online. But Don Steward never lets us down. His website has a discover of box plot activities - my favourite is this truthful or imitation activity.

I also similar the activeness below from bigideasmath.com:

If you’re looking to generate box plots on your interactive whiteboard for flat discussion, this online tool is overnice – it has pre-populated information or you lot tin input your own.

I've listed some to a greater extent than skilful box plot resources below. I’ve constitute that many resources enquire questions almost skewness, which nosotros don’t encompass until S1 (but mayhap nosotros should encompass earlier). Treatment of outliers is also non covered at GCSE precisely makes for a overnice discussion.

• Standards unit of measurement activities S5 together with S6, which tin last constitute on Mr Barton’s website. 
• Illustrative Mathematics has loads of first-class statistics questions, similar Haircut Costs together with Speed Trap.
• Interpreting Box Plots Treasure Hunt from numberloving.co.uk.
• Representing Data Using Box Plots from Mathematics Assessment Project (activities at the back)
• Lots of exercises from CIMT inwards this chapter – I specially similar the comparing questions on the final few pages 
• Using NBA Statistics for Box together with Whisker Plots from NCTM 
• The variability exercise (starting on page 8) inwards this lesson plan could last helpful when didactics the concept of spread. 
• My Describing Box Plots activeness on TES helps pupils do reading together with drawing box plots together with emphasises the purpose of the right vocabulary.
• My Party Box Plots activeness on TES helps pupils empathize the concept of spread.

If you lot desire to demo your flat some ‘real world’ box plots hence these box plots showing the ages of World Cup players could prompt some skilful discussions almost comparisons. Read @loumeracy’s blog post for to a greater extent than on this.

If you lot desire to ‘wow’ your flat amongst an instance of how box plots tin last used to compare huge amounts of information inwards a modest space, demo them this example which shows the historic menstruation distribution of Olympics athletes (more of this here).

Final thoughts
In French the box plot is called boîte à moustaches (box amongst a moustache). The author of this article attempts to create a box together with beard plot!

There are many variations to the box together with whisker plot, such equally the edible bean plot together with violin plot. Look these upwardly on google images for lots of examples.

I read an interesting thought here that I’d never thought of before: “One agency to assistance you lot translate box plots is to imagine that the agency a information ready looks equally a histogram is something similar a mount viewed from Earth flat together with a box together with whisker diagram is something similar a contour map of that mount equally viewed from above”.

Well, at that topographic point you lot are – a 'box plot weblog post'. Try maxim that 5 times out loud. I've invented a novel natural language twister.

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