For this week’s blog post I wanted to test myself, think outside my box and come up with a lesson idea for Mathematics in High School. My background does not include High School Mathematics from the teacher perspective, I remember several Algebra and Geometry lessons and I also remember saying, “I’m never going to use this in real life”. Does anyone else remember those thoughts or am I the only one?

To challenge myself I first had to become with a standard or set of standards, I first went to where I have always felt (see emotional connection to Math) successful in High School, Probability and Statistics. I had to assess that these are still a part of the standards for High School Mathematics, again, my professional life has focused on Elementary Education. 

Excitedly I found that Probability and Stats are still standards for High School students, so I chose a set of standards to work from. Here are the standards I pulled from the Massachusetts State Common Core Standards, I think they are the same for all Common Core states but I’m not sure.

Interpreting Categorical and Quantitative Data S-ID

A. Summarize, represent, and interpret data on a single count or measurement variable. Use calculators, spreadsheets, and other technology as appropriate.

• S-ID. 1. Represent data with plots on the real number line (dot plots, histograms, and box plots).
• S-ID. 2. Use statistics appropriate to the shape of the data distribution to compare center (median, mean) and spread (interquartile range, standard deviation) of two or more different data sets.
• S-ID. 3. Interpret differences in shape, center, and spread in the context of the data sets, accounting for possible effects of extreme data points (outliers).

Now that I have my standards, I went to see if I could find a lesson someone might teach fitting these standards, so I googled it and came across this lesson from Statistics Teacher, from which we will use to integrate technology into at each level of the SAMR model.

I based the lesson on data collected in an article which was published in 2012 discussing female and male hurricanes and their deadliness. After reading through the lesson I learned that there are differences in hurricanes based on the names they are given. I always thought the names were predetermined by a list that national meteorologist had. Who knew? You probably already knew that.

For this lesson, Students will calculate numerical summaries and use them to compare and contrast two data sets. Students will use comparative box plots to compare two data sets. Students will check for outliers in data distributions.

S: For this level of tech authenticity, instead of printing out the data, articles and information you can have it located in your LMS or OneNote for the students to access the information. Remember substitution is not changing the lesson, in this case the enhancement is that students all have the information accessible through a device.

You could also have the students look up information on Hurricanes and share out information they found, which will build their background knowledge, which will help them understand the topic and how math applies in real life.

A: Augmentation allows for technology to have an added function over a direct substitute. For a lesson like this, if you are providing the students with the data, you can give it to them in an excel spreadsheet, which they could then use the technology to help them create visually appealing displays for the data, which would allow them to check their work afterwords.

Another thought for this level is to have the students use Microsoft Excel to create the data sets they need, whether it is a box plot, histogram or whatever display they felt would be effective for getting to their point. This would add a research component to the lesson, which makes it boarder a modification lesson since you are changing the lesson.

M: When it comes to modification, we are looking at redesigning the tasks. If you remember back to the standards the students are asked to create and analyze data sets. Throughout their work, the students can create quick Flipgrid videos for each step of the work to explain their process and how they arrived at their answers. Students can then respond to each other, commenting about the work or the process the students undertook.

R: In keeping with the spirit of the assignment, Redefinition could take on a few different ideas. Student could create their own how to find using screencastify walking students through how to solve the problem. They could also use technology to create predictions and share through making a video on what the data suggest for the future. Remember, since this article was written in 2014, students can make predictions based on the information they have, create a video explaining their predictions and then they can collect data from the last 5 years and use that to see if their predictions based on their data came true.

The students can also create a newscast video, like breaking news to release their findings, and answer interview style questions that their classmates come up with and then take it up another notch by asking from future predictions.

To me, Redefinition is where you can come up with incredible ways to integrate technology into your math class and create some amazing ways of displaying their knowledge and I firmly believe it will help the students retaining the knowledge of not just hurricanes but also the importance to analyze and interpret data. Who knows, you might even ignite a passion in a student who wants to move forward with a career in Statistics and Probability!

What are your thoughts? Leave us a comment below to let us know. If you have any great lesson ideas and how you can incorporate technology into them, leave us a note too! I look forward to hearing from you!