Mean, Median, Mode & Range

Welcome back!

What do your students know about the mean, median, mode, and range of a set of numbers? I found a fun and catchy song that students would enjoy listening to for either a quick review of the terms, or an introduction to the concepts. This video is great because it defines what each term means, and also provides examples and explains how to find them in a set of numbers. Check it out!

Learning how to organize data using mean, median, mode and range can be confusing at times as some students forget what each term means. Once they learn them and practice, they will definitely get the hang of it. I was doing some surfing on Pinterest and found a fun and engaging activity that you can use in your classroom to help your students practice mean, median, mode and range. I found this link on Pinterest, but it originates from a teacher's blog where she shares different activities that she does with her Grade 5 students in her own classroom. 

 M. (2016, January 23). [Digital image]. Retrieved November 27, 2016, from http://crazinessinfifth.blogspot.ca/2016/01/cup-stacking-mean-median-mode-range.html 

This is a fun activity that students will enjoy as they are able to get creative and build their own cup towers. The teacher will divide the students into small groups and provide each group with a set of cups (starting with 50 cups per group). The groups will have 5 minutes to discuss different strategies and practice how they want to stack their cups to build a tower. Then the game begins! The students have 1 minute to build their tower strategically, with as many cups as possible. When time is up, the teacher will collect the data of how many cups each group used, and record it on the board. The next step is to have students calculate the mean, median, mode and range of the data collected and record it on a sheet that is given to them. Once the students are able to complete the first round, they are to begin the second round. In the second round, students are only given 30 cups to build their towers... a little more of a challenge. The students are to repeat the same task as the first round, and collect the data.

This is definitely a great challenge I would have my students complete in my classroom. As they are working in their groups, they will be working collaboratively by sharing strategies, and having math talks!