In the Classroom/Before you go:
- Organizing data is a lab science skill that all students use in order to make useful interpretations of their data.
- Discuss how organized data is easier to understand and use than cluttered lists and random observations. Compare a sock drawer that contains socks just dropped in randomly to a sock drawer containing neatly matched pairs. In which drawer would the student prefer to find socks? In which drawer would the student be more likely to find a matched pair quickly?
- Discuss how to make and fill in a tally chart.
- Show the students how to make tallies in a tally chart. Have the students practice tallying objects or events in and around your classroom.
- Show the students how to convert the tallies on their chart into single or double-digit numbers.
- Discuss why scientists (and others!) use graphs to visually display data.
- Help the students prepare bar graphs or pictographs of their classroom practice data.
- Ask questions about the data that the students can answer from their graph, such as: What was the most…? What was the least…? How many of …?
- Discuss the different varieties of rides at Great America. Have the students list different rides by name under each type of ride on the tally chart or have the students use the general descriptors as they appear on the chart.
- Discuss what the students should do if they want to count a ride they don’t feel "fits" with the given categories.
In the Classroom/After you return:
- Help the students prepare bar graphs or pictographs of their Great America Physics Day data.
- Have the students write their answers to some interpretation questions on the graph.
- Display the graphs for all to see with pictures of the students having a good time, and start preparing for next year’s trip!
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Updated 1/28/2012