Why teach data analysis ?
FROM THE FIELD
Counting on a
Figure 1
Starry Night
Robin A . Ward , PhD .
When most people view van Gogh ’ s The Starry Night ( 1889 ), they marvel at the turbulent and agitated sky , the prominent flame-like cypress alive in the foreground , the hushed village at the rolling mountains ’ edge , and the bright orbs of light peppering the night that can be depicted in colorful bar graphs . What ?
Read on and learn how kindergarteners created their own van Gogh inspired-night skies and used their starry art creations as the focal point to a mathematics lesson on data collection and analysis .
Why teach data analysis ?
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics ( NCTM , 2000 ) advocates that students , as early as prekindergarten , should pose questions and gather data about themselves and their surroundings ; sort and classify objects according to their attributes and organize data about the objects ; and represent data using concrete objects , pictures , and graphs .
STEAMed Magazine
16
January 2016 Edition