Bar Graph Investigations

During this lesson, the students apply what they know about comparison subtraction by constructing bar graphs and using them to answer questions. They conduct a survey to gather data and then complete a bar graph. They also use the data to generate a bar graph using technology.

Weblink address (URL):

Standards & Objectives

Learning objectives:

Students will:

Conduct surveys to collect data.
Create bar graphs using the data from those surveys.
Use subtraction to analyze data from bar graphs.

Essential and guiding questions:

What information did our first bar graph show? Which fruit was the favorite? Which was second? How many more students liked the favorite fruit than liked the second favorite?

Which kind of fruit was the least favorite? How many fewer students liked that kind of fruit than liked (grapes) the best?

Suppose two more students had chosen (oranges). How would the graph have been different?

Look at this group's graph. (Choose one group's graph to display. As an example, assume it was a graph of favorite colors illustrated above.) How many students voted that red was their favorite? Is that more than the number that chose blue? How many more? What was the least favorite of the four colors? How many picked that one? How many students picked the favorite color of the class? (Repeat with each of the group's graphs.)

Lesson Variations

Blooms taxonomy level:

Creating

Differentiation suggestions:

This lesson plan can easily be differentiated by the way the information is presented especially in the levels of teacher questioning and student response. This lesson plan provides a variety of skills but could be used in many instructional settings when the graph is referred to in class.

References

Contributors:

Angela Hamilton

Originator:

Ayers Institute for Learning & Innovation