The Language of Graphs
Area
Math
Duration
1 session
Dimension of the advised group of students
One group of 20-30 people divided in small groups
Specific objectives
- To create an encouraging connection with math
- To promote collaborative work
- To understand math as integral to society and our day-to-day lives
- To cope with problems
- To understand mathematical relationships
Needed Materials
- PowerPoint presentation
- Photocopies
If the training is organized online one communication platform will be necessary.
Software
- One online communication platform, such us: Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, etc.
- In person, no software is needed.
Description
When people carry out research, they usually gather a great amount of data that is easier
to understand and draw conclusions from if they are organized and represented in graphs.
Graphs make it easier for people to record and show information about any kind of work.
Graphs are also useful to make predictions about things like the weather, interest rates,
and the future cost of our home electricity usage. Information in graphs and tables is often
found in newspapers and pamphlets, so it is necessary that the youth know how to
interpret this kind of information in order to be global citizens.
This activity teaches participants to display data in an easy manner, highlighting
similarities, disparities, trends, and other relationships. When participants decide how to
display data and go through the steps to create that display, they learn which types of
graphs are useful for each type of data.
Procedure on how to put in practice
Duration: 60 minutes
No of participants: small groups
Methods used: group discussion, collaborative workCompetences developed: critical thinking, logical thinking
Step-by-step description:
1. Explain with examples from the PowerPoint what is a sketch graph and how we can
use it to show the relationship between two sets of data.
2. Work in pairs to interpret different points from a sketch graph and compare them.
Decide if sentences describing the graphs are true or false from the information
contained in them. Match statements and graphs.
3. From a NYTimes video, participants in groups discuss how information is taken
away from a graph.
4. Participants are then given data sets and asked to devise graphs from them.
Debriefing question: Where else would sketch graphs be useful? Think of examples.
