Introduction to Statistics

=Introduction to Statistics=



Give each student a label to pin on his/her uniform. It must have on it the age of the student in years, the age in months, the height of the student in cms and his/her shoe size. Let students form groups according to their age in years. How many such groups do you have? Next let them form groups according to their age in months. How many groups do you have now? Can the same be done creating clusters as those aged between 190 to 195 months, 195 to 200 months, 200-205 months? Now what happens to the number of groups? ( If the age of a student is 195 months, he goes into the cluster 195-200) Encourage students to put this data in the form of a table. Every group writes on a piece of card paper the least and greatest of the elements it represents such as 195-200. The teacher introduces the term “class limits’. Each member of the group puts a tally mark to represent himself. The fifth member has to cross the four tally marks made ahead of him/her. The group counts the number of members from the number of tally marks made. This number is written on the card paper. The teacher introduces the term for this number- viz. class frequency. Each group calculates the class width by finding the difference between the class limits. Thus three new concepts, class limits, class frequency and class width are introduced. Ask students to now arrange themselves according to their heights in cms. Help them to first decide the range of data and then the class intervals. Find the class limits, class frequency and class width for this data. The same activity can be further used to teach about cumulative frequency. If the class intervals for ages in months are 190-195, 195-200, 200-205, 205-210, use simple questions as: How many students with age less than 195 months? How many with age less than 200 months and so on..

This lesson is based on Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic experiences. Use of multi modalities enhances learning. Brain Based Learning Principles propounded by Caine and Caine emphasize the need for learning to be accompanied with patterning and orchestrated immersion. The more the senses involved, more are the chances of retention.