Monday, May 18, 2009

Our Math Project


Statistics and data are very important in our world because they help us learn many things about a certain group or a lot of different groups together. We can gather information on a specific topic that can be measured and analyzed in charts and graphs. From this information, we can compare different groups and make informed and smart decisions.

An example of how statistics and data are used in the U.S. is through the National Census. The Census takes information about every household in the U.S. for a number of different reasons. Some reasons this data is collected is to see how many people are living in certain areas, the range of ages and races of those people, how much money each state should get from the government and a lot of other things.

Our Math project will focus around statistics, data, charts and graphs. We will be creating and taking surveys on different pop culture topics such as music, movies, tv shows, books, technology, sports, food, fashion, video games, and school to learn how these topics effect the Cavallaro family. We will gather and analyze all of this data by creating charts and graphs and then we will present our findings so that we and other people can learn from our information.


The Project will consist of 3 major parts:
You will be using Google Docs for each part of the project

1. Pop Culture Survey - Your group will create a survey of 5-10 questions on a specific pop culture topic that you decide upon. You must describe what your group wants to learn from your survey (HYPOTHESIS). Each person in your class, as well as 15 other people (family, friends) will have to take your survey. You should have at least 45 survey responses.

2. Charts and Graphs - Once you have collected all of your survey results, you will create at least 4 different charts and graphs describing your findings. You may create charts to represent different types of data such as a chart with just the responses from boys or a chart showing the most popular tv shows.

3. PowerPoint Presentation - Finally, using all of your data, information and charts, you will create a PowerPoint presentation that you will present to the rest of the class. You will have to explain your project, what you have found out about the Cavallaro family and how math played a role in you completing your project.



Please COMMENT to this post! Include what Pop Culture topic your group chose and what you plan to learn from this topic (HYPOTHESIS). Only 1 person per group needs to comment, but include ONLY the first names of everyone in your group.

Project Deadlines



Due Dates

Friday, May 29th - Pop Culture Survey Completed and shared with teachers

Wed., June 3rd - Students have taken other group's surveys

Wed., June 10th - Charts and Graphs Completed

Wed., June 17th - PowerPoints completed

Mon., June 22nd - Presentations completed


Google Docs


We will be using Google Docs to create our surveys, charts and graphs, and our powerpoint presentations. You can access the site at http://google.com/a/is281.com and sign in using your User Name and Password.


Once you have signed in, you are ready to start creating your survey. Follow these steps in order to create your group survey:
  • 1 person in the group will click on "New", then "Form"
  • Give your survey a Title and add directions
  • Click on "SAVE" and then close the survey
  • Once you are back to your main Google Docs page, click on the CHECK BOX next to your survey and then click on "SHARE"
  • Then, type in the email addresses of the people in your group (each email will end with @is281.com). Please share your survey with your teachers as well.
  • You can all now edit the survey
  • Once you open the survey, click on "Form", then "Edit Form"

You will have to come up with 5-10 questions that you want others to answer. You can choose multiple choice questions, text questions, scale of 1-10 questions, etc... Please make sure that you check the box that says "Make this a required question". If it's a multiple choice, you should "Add other" so that people can type in their own answers. Make sure you click on "DONE" when you have created the question.

There are a few REQUIRED questions that everyone should include in their surveys. These questions will help you to analyze and group your data. If you think of any other questions that you feel will help you analyze and group your data, please feel free to include them.

  • What is your FIRST name?
  • What is your age?
  • What is your gender?

Creating Charts and Graphs


Charts and graphs are a great way to visually represent data. They allow people to see numbers, information and many other types of data as an image. Charts and graphs help people understand information quickly and notice important patterns and relationships. There are several different kinds of charts and graphs such as pie, bar, line and column. 

  • How do we know when to use a certain type of chart or graph? Please comment to this post.

Using the data you received from your Pop Culture surveys, you will have to create at least 4 different charts and graphs. You might create a graph comparing the responses of boys and girls or maybe a chart showing the percentages of people who play different video game systems. 

To create your charts, use the same spreadsheet that all of your survey responses are in. Follow these directions:
  • Under all of your responses, type in the information for your chart (eg. Video Game Systems, # of students) and your data (numbers).
  • Highlight all of your information for your chart
  • Click on INSERT, then CHART
  • Choose the chart you want to use
  • Type in the Chart Title
  • Type in the categories for the horizontal and vertical axises
  • Click on SAVE CHART

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Power Point Presentations


The final part of this project will be to create a Power Point presentation showing everything that you have learned from your survey. You MUST include all 4 graphs as well as the data that goes along with each graph. Please make sure that the data is organized properly. You will also have to answer at least 3 of the questions below for each graph; you may choose which questions you want to answer. You should also include any other important information that you have learned during this project. You should have at least 2 slides per graph, which means you should have a minimum of 9 slides including the Title Slide. Please keep in mind that we will be publishing the finished Power Points on this web site so you can share what you have learned with others (students, friends, family, people around the world).

ONLY USE YOUR FIRST NAME

There are 2 options for you when you are creating your Power Points, you can either:

  • Create your presentation in Power Point and then UPLOAD it to Google Docs
  • Create your presentation in Google Docs

Either way, you MUST SHARE your presentation with your teachers, so we can grade it and post in on our web site.

Questions

What's the largest range of data in 1 graph?
What is the greatest frequency in 1 graph?
What is the mean, meadian and mode of 1 graph?
What are the percentages of 1 graph?
How many more students did "this" than "that" on 1 graph?
What conclusions can we draw from our graphs?