Students will explore the impact of adding or removing data from a data set on a measure of central tendency, and describe how these changes alter the shape and distribution of the data.

• There are different types of data;
• Data is often characterized as continuous or discrete;
• Discrete data is often countable and can only take on certain values;
• Continuous data is measurable and can take any value (within a range);
• The range of a set of data is the difference between the highest and lowest values in the set;
• A measure of central tendency for a data set summarizes all of its values with a single number;
• Mean can be revealed through division;
• Removing data from a data set has an impact on a measure of central tendency;
• Removing data from a data set can alter the shape and distribution of the data; and,
• An outlier is a data point that differs significantly from the rest of the data set.

Show students this video:

Then, ask students:

What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

Give students 60 seconds (or more) to do a rapid write on a piece of paper.

Then, ask students to share with their neighbours for another 60 seconds.

Finally, allow students to share with the entire group.

Some of the noticing and wondering that came up in a class recently included:

• I notice it’s a scoreboard.
• I notice the Canadian flags.
• I notice the scores. 
• I notice the first gymnast had the best score.
• I wonder if they are competing against each other.
• I wonder if you have to add the scores together.

At this point, you can answer any notices and wonders that you can cross off the list right away.Share the following information:

In the Olympic team finals, gymnasts compete with their national squad on all four events; the balance beam, the uneven bars, vault and the floor. The scores from the session determine the medalists in the team competition. The scoreboard above shows the best results on vault for the four members of the Canadian gymnastics team.

Represent the results for team Canada on all four apparatuses in a single graph.

What is the team’s average score on each apparatus?

The current format at the Olympics Games is 4–3–3. Of the four gymnasts on the team, three compete in each event. Meaning, the team will drop the lowest score on each apparatus.

Student Prompt:

Graph the data again, this time, do not include the lowest score on each apparatus.

Revise the mean score for each apparatus.

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Provide students an opportunity to reflect on their learning by offering these consolidation prompts to be completed independently.

Consolidation Prompt #1:

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Consolidation Prompt #2:

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We suggest collecting this reflection as an additional opportunity to engage in the formative assessment process to inform next steps for individual students as well as how the whole class will proceed.

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