While I was doing the lesson on graphing in our text book, I thought a lot about how elementary students could put the various types of graphs to use. Last school year one of my daughters was in Kindergarten. As a parent I was amazed as to the amount of graphing she did. Most of the graphs were either tally mark style or bar graphs, but none the less very impressive. I was impressed that she was able to properly gather, record and display the information in an effective manner. For many students, graphing allows them to have the important visual reinforcement they need to properly understand the results of the information they were working with. Graphing also gives students the opportunity not only to use their mathematical skills while computing the results, but also communication skills while gathering information and also writing and composition skills while displaying theinformation.
*Simply stated, graphing is the display of data!
Our text explains that, every data display "tells a story." Students are great story tellers, so why not take advantage of this and see just how creativity and knowledge can combine?
*A graphic display of data should always have certain characteristics. Specifically, a graphic display should have a title explaining what the data represents and labels for the units or categories used in the display. The display itself should include scales that show the units or categories used in the display.
The display of data that is done in a visual form can involve these various types of graphs:
*Frequency tables: various data categories of interest are listed in a table
*Tally marks: are placed in each category to indicate the frequency with which observed data items fall into a given category
*Dot plots: a horizontal number line where dots are placed above the corresponding scale marking
*Stem and leaf plot: a vertical display where the larger #'s 10's, 100's etc...digit is the stem and the units digits are the leaf
*Pictograph: A graph commonly used in newspapers, a small icon or figure is used to represent the data values
*Histograph: similar to a stem and leaf plot, but without the individual leaves
*Bar graph: used when categories represent discrete groups, used to show a variation over time or to compare items
*Circle graph or Pie graph: often used to compare parts of the total in a data display, a circular region sub-divided into a number of pie shaped sectors.
*Line graph: used to describe either discrete or continuous events, constructed by plotting the ordered pairs of data on a rectangular coordinate grid.
*Scatterplots: displays two-variable data that includes a selected number of ordered pairs
These two websites contain some great examples of the various types of graphs:
A MUST TRY!!!! This site is aimed towards kids and lets you create various types of graphs. After all data is input and your graph is created there is an option to save and even print....a super fun classroom resource!
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