WAYS PARENTS CAN HELP
Here are some activities you and your student
can do together.
• Read charts, tables, and graphs in news-
papers and magazines. Discuss the informa-
tion that each display shows.
• Collect data about your student’s favorite
sport and make a graph showing how a team
is doing over time or a graph showing how
various teams performed last season.
• Take an inventory of something in your
house (perhaps the types of groceries in your
pantry). Organize the information in a fre-
quency table.
• Conduct a survey on your street. (What
colors of cars do people drive?) Organize
your data, display it, and discuss how this in-
formation might be used.
• Visit these websites:
http://nces.ed.gov/NCESKIDS/Graphing
http://www.mcwdn.org/Graphs/
TabGraphMain.html
http://www.mathbenchmarks.org/
tx_esc_mb/content/docs/questions/
VOCABULARY
Data: The facts or numbers that describe some-
thing.
• Categorical - describes a quality such as a per-
son's gender, race, or religion
• Numerical – gives the count (number of cars)
or a measurement (height, scores).
Frequency Table: A chart for organizing data. It
shows the number of times each item appears.
Median: The midpoint of a set of data If all the
pieces of data are arranged in order, the median is
the value that divides the data in half.
Mode: The value in the data set that occurs most
often. Mode often represents categorical data.
Mean: The sum of the data values divided by the
number of data items. Mean is often called the
average.
Range: The spread of the data found by subtract-
ing the smallest data value from the largest data
value.
For more vocabulary help, visit www.intermath-
uga.gatech.edu.
Dear Parents and Friends,
Welcome to a new school year! We are eager to work with you and your student as we learn new mathematical
concepts. The State of Georgia is introducing Performance Standards which call for students to be actively en-
gaged in doing math in order to learn math. In the classroom, students will frequently work on tasks and activities
to discover and apply mathematical thinking. Sometimes, students will be working with a partner or group; other
times, students will work independently. Frequently, students will be asked to explain or justify their answers.
Students will be expected to write clearly and properly.
Mathematical content will be organized in units based on the content of the Georgia Performance Standards.
Since most textbooks published before the adoption of the new standards do not contain all the topics addressed in
the Performance Standards, the teacher will be providing content (notes) in class and supplying practice through
tasks (such as, record the high temperature everyday this week and use this data to make a line graph) and paper-
based activities. When appropriate, problems may be assigned from the text.
Our first unit involves collecting and interpreting data. As we study this unit, your student will learn to recognize
numerical and categorical data and to determine how best to organize and display each type of data. Your stu-
dent will analyze data by finding the mean, median, mode, and range as appropriate. And then your student will
interpret the data by describing the significance of his/her analysis.
The unit culminating project involves your student in conducting his/her own survey; organizing the data in a fre-
quency table, line plot, or stem and leaf plot; and, displaying the data in a bar graph, pictograph, histogram,
or line graph. Your student should complete the project by analyzing the data and interpreting the results.
In our parent newsletters we intend to include sample problems with sample responses, vocabulary, textbook
references, Internet links, and suggestions of ways parents can help their students. If there are additional items
you would like us to include in the newsletter, please contact Marsha Shrago at mar-
sha.shrago@ceismc.gatech.edu or tell your student’s math teacher. Thank you.
