Student-designed Experiments: Part 5 Data-generating Activities for Labs, Demos, and Computation
Whether in the classroom or at home, how do we initiate the process of student-designed lab or field experiments? The first step is to help the students see potential research questions and the data in the world around them. In this 1.5-hour workshop, we engage in several demonstration activities to help teachers see sources for […]
Math-infused Science: Part 1 Choosing the Most Appropriate Graph for Your Data
Students aren’t the only ones who struggle to determine the best way to display data in graphic form. Because there are usually many representations that can be used, and each may encourage the reader to make slightly different conclusions, deciding on the most appropriate graph can be tricky. In this 1.5 hr. workshop, participants will […]
Math-infused Science: Part 2 Choosing the Most Appropriate Graph for Your Data
In this 1.5 hr. workshop participants will use an example data set from a Data Nuggets experiment to explore different methods of depicting the same set of numbers in several different ways. We will focus this session on defining the relationship between the research question and the choice of how and what is represented on […]
Math-infused Science: Part 3 Choosing the Most Appropriate Graph for Your Data
“So, should I use a bar graph?” Students are often unsure of how to depict data in a manner that elucidates the trends and exposes any disruptions that need to be revealed. In addition, they often define their choices based on the type of graph (pie, bar, line, scatterplot, histogram, etc.) rather than identifying how […]
Math-infused Science: Part 4 Choosing the Most Appropriate Graph for Your Data
The final workshop in this series guides teachers through the technical steps of helping students create a graph that looks the way the student intends it to look. We will navigate the formulas, buttons, options, and functions of two common graphing programs to make visual displays of data that are both beautiful and informative. A […]
Statistics for Teaching Science: Part 1 Measuring and Reporting Uncertainty
All measurements include some degree of uncertainty or error, but how it is reported is decided by the person collecting the data. Because analysis is dependent on the data collected, the method used to report error can substantially impact the strength of the claims made and conclusions drawn. In this workshop, we will explore five […]
Math-infused Science: Writing and Speaking About Data (DBQs and FRQs)
How do we talk about data? How do we write about data? In this 1.5 hr. workshop, you will discover ways to help your student be specific, using the correct terms, in context, as they identify and describe trends in a set of numbers. We will play two games useful for building a working vocabulary […]
Statistics for Teaching Science: Part 2 The Problem with Describing Data Using the Mean
Often by middle school and certainly by high school, students default to the mean as the best way to describe data without much consideration for how they might defend that choice. So, you might think, what’s the harm in that? Everyone knows what is meant by this descriptor, it is familiar and understandable, easy to […]
Statistics for Teaching Science: Part 3 Getting Comfortable with Variance, Standard Deviation, Standard Error of the Mean, and the 95% Confidence Interval
The variance, standard deviation, and standard error of the mean are excellent methods for describing data because they convey the variability of the observed data around the mean. Anyone teaching AP, IB, Pre-AP, Pre-IB, or college-bound science students will likely want to know how to calculate these values, what they indicate, and how to contextualize […]
Statistics for Teaching Science: Part 4 Expressing Error on a Graph
Error bars are placed on a graph to give a more detailed account of what was observed. Although there are many descriptors that can be used to draw error bars, in each case the value is used to express the uncertainty or variability of the data. Error bars created from certain calculations are especially informative […]