Overview of Data Gathering Activities
Each
year in the Connecting Math to Our Lives project, participating
classes work on a local math project using math to investigate
an issue of interest in their community.
In addition, all classes are invited to participate in a series
of international data gathering activities with the large
group where all classes collect the same set of data and compare
the data across states and countries.
This
year participating classes will look at the prices of groceries
and other commonly purchased items in different communities.
Classes will then look at the relative wages of selected jobs
in their local contexts (in order to get a sense of how much
someone has to work for a grocery item or other item on the
shopping list). These activities are designed to provide students
different ways to think about the relative costs or value
of different items, and the relative value placed on different
kinds of work.
We will talk on-line about what we think this data means locally
and globally.
The
Global Data Gathering Activities are designed to:
•
explore the significance of multiple representations in mathematics
as a way to broaden the scope of mathematics;
• examine how real world settings can be interpreted
mathematically to empower communities; and
• accentuate how mathematics can be utilized for the
purpose of global communication/critical dialogue in an ever
interconnected and changing world.
First Data Collection Activity: "Our Shopping List"
a) Compile a grocery list of the items your students or their
families most commonly buy when they go shopping (5 or more
items)
b) For each item, give the units in which the item is measured
Second Data Collection Activity: "The Prices We Pay"
The project facilitators will send you a list of "standard"
or commonly purchased items.
a) Your class will send in the prices for these items, as
well as the prices for their grocery list from DCA 1.
b) Tell us what currency you use in your country.
c) Convert this currency to two others, tell us why you chose
those particular currencies, and tell us the prices for the
items in the other currencies.
Third Data Collection Activity: "The Wages We Earn"
a) Ask students to find the average yearly income for their
country or state.
b) Ask students to find the average yearly income for:
1) farm worker or factory worker,
2) a secondary school teacher, and
3) a medical doctor
(If a medical doctor is not a high wage earner in your country,
then please add a fourth category and tell us the average
income for the high-paying job you added.)
Fourth Data Collection Activity: "The Real Costs"
a)
Find the average number of hours worked per week for each
of the jobs above, and find the wage per hour.
b) Calculate how many hours it takes a farm or factory worker,
a secondary school teacher, and a doctor to work to earn each
of the items on the shopping list.
Fifth Data Collection Activity: Conclusions
A.
Students analyze the data collected, consider the implications
they think the data projects, and share their observations
with the larger group.
B. Students consider the different ways that this data and
that their observations might be represented (e.g. verbally,
in writing, pictorially, in a graph, algebraically, etc.)
and which are most useful for making statements about the
data.
