Content Area: Math

 

Index: 4.4A Grade 8 CPI 3

 

Standard: 4.4 - Data Analysis, Probability, and Discrete Mathematics

 

Strand: A - Data Analysis

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 3 - The student will estimate lines of best fit and use them to interpolate within the range of the data.

 

Grade: 8

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        Presented with the problem of determining how long it would take the wave to go around Giants Stadium, students design an experiment to gather data from various numbers of students. They produce a scatterplot and use it to determine a line of best fit. They pick two points on the line and determine the equation for that line. Last, they estimate the number of people around the stadium and answer the question.

 

·        Given some of the winning times for the Men's and Women's Olympic 100 meter freestyle events during the past century, students plot the data and produce a line of best fit for each event. They use their equations to estimate the winning times in those years for which the information was not recorded, and they predict when the women's winning times will equal the men's current winning times.

 

·        Students are presented with an article that states that police have discovered a human radius bone which is 25 centimeters long. Students perform measurements of the lengths of radius bones of various-sized people and their heights, produce a scatterplot, fit a line to the data, and determine their prediction of the height of the person whose bone was found. They write a letter to the chief of police, predicting the height of the person, with justifications for their conclusion.