Surveying Teachers and Students on Math and Gender, and Freedom of Speech

Students from Sunnyvale, California Columbia Middle School Teacher Kelly Vaughn Students Ages 13-14

In this project, teacher Kelly Vaughn asked her students to come up with a "meaningful" and "unique" statistics topics. One of the many issues that student were interested in exploring was establishing if there were differences between girls' and boy's attitudes towards math, as well as the academic achiievement of girls compared to boys. Another topic was surveying students' and teachers' opinions about freedom of expression.

Statistics in Society

Thinking about statistics and the media

Kelly Vaughn`s 8th grade math students started their project with a classroom discussion about statistics in society, and how, and for what purposes statistics is used. Students looked at and discussed examples of statistics, graphs and tables in the media. They had to come up with an idea for a statistics project on a social issue relevant to their school or immediate community. With the students' attention focused on media, many of them were commenting on coverage of an incident where a high school student had shot and killed a teacher. There were lively debates about violence in the media, and freedom of expression.

Doing research

The next step was for students to define topics and pose questions. They could work alone or in groups of up to 4. Several students were interested in questions of gender, math, and achievement. They wanted to find out if there was a difference between boys` and girls` attitudes towards math, and some wanted to know if there was any difference in academic achievement between the two groups.

Other students wanted to follow up the issue of freedom of expression and asked the question: "Do you think students should get disciplined for expressing their opinions - if these are violent - in public?"

Students drew up survey sheets and collected information by asking questions to their peers directly, or via e-mail with a math class at a neighboring school. Students later remarked that the latter may have been a way to elicit more honest answers, since they were not interacting with and maybe influencing the respondents. In answering the question about violence, students first surveyed fellow teenagers only, but felt that "would be biased" and that they needed to include teachers. In some cases students collected data about achievement from the principal's office. Students started processing the data, with the help of their teacher who showed them tools on how to make graphs.

Applying math concepts

During this process students calculated ratios, percentages, and drew bar and circle graphs. Teacher Kelly Vaughn says it was important that students drew circle graphs by hand rather than on computer, since this is an excellent way to learn about proportions.

Results

The final step was presentation of the results to the class. Students were pleased that there was very little difference between girls' and boys' attitudes to math. They were surprised at the fact that girls had higher academic achievement than boys: it was a moment of pride and affirmation for the girls in the class. Results of the survey on public expression of violent sentiments were not a surprise, but made students think about what a difference it makes who you ask to respond to questions. In addition to all the new math skills students acquired, the project helped students to better understand the process and types of decisions that lie behind the statistics they see in the media.