Tuesday, January 17, 2012

First Grade Survey

My first-graders are learning about surveys, data, and making a representation (or a graph) of the data.  Each pair of students came up with their own survey question and polled everyone in the class.  Then we went to the computer lab to make the representations on kidpix.  I personally think anytime you can combine kidpix and math, you are sure to impress someone with your tech-savvy 6 year-olds.  I am walking around viewing their representations when I come across one interesting one.  Now I told my students that they must have a title, their 2 categories labeled, numbers, and a representation of that number (tally marks, pictures, circles, bar graph, etc).  This group has the question: Which do you like better: bm or p?  Furthermore, they discovered that 15 people liked bm and 7 people liked p. 
While biting my bottom lip, I ask, "What is your survey question again?"  
"You know," they reply, "Which do you like better: blue macaws or parrots?"
"Oh, of course!  How silly of me!  One tip though: You might want to label it "blue macaw" and "parrot". Just so no one gets confused,"  
 "No.  We would rather abbreviate it," they reply.  Oh well.  I tried.  I think I'll hang it in the hallway anyway.  It will definitely leave people guessing!

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