Math Students Can Relate To Alice Rysdon Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12

Overview Rationale Objective Strategies Classroom Activities Annotated Bibliography/Resources Appendices

Overview The aim of this unit is to integrate different forms of media into the seventh grade Pittsburgh Public School mathematics core curriculum. My goal is to include different ways that students may encounter math in their lives. As they begin higher-level math concepts, students at times find math more difficult. This unit will provide additional lessons that can be added to the seventh grade curriculum to enhance the students understanding of key concepts while introducing topics in light-hearted ways. By using current media I hope to gain the students attention and directly connect some of our math concepts to their world. These lessons will add to the 7th grade mathematics curriculum by making lessons that will capture student interest and make math more relevant to each students life.

Rationale Sometimes students think that math is not relevant to their lives. All too often they do not find math interesting or fun. To try to change this, this unit aims to use different media to show that math is relevant to the students lives and to introduce cartoons as to make math more fun. Hopefully they will realize that math relates to their lives in many ways that they might not have considered. Math Is Used In Many Different Ways Scientists use math to help make sense of the world. Math is frequently regarded as the language of science. Research must be mathematically sound to be generally accepted. Scientists use math to interpret their data. Our society 271

increasingly relies on science to make our lives easier and/or better. To interpret what scientists find when they report their results, students need to be able to have some familiarity with statistics and other math. Math is an integral part of every sport. For example, math is used in baseball to make comparisons between players. When a baseball player comes up to bat, many people will be aware of what his batting average is. Math is used to convince people that we need to make changes politically or that we need to keep the status quo. Students as they become older will need to be able to evaluate the arguments being made. In order to do this, students will need to be able to think critically. Using real world examples will help students to develop habits of questioning the results. Math is used to make comparisons between different consumer goods. If students are going to make wise decisions about their personal lives, students need the tools to think analytically about the choices they make. Students need to be able to apply basic math concepts correctly to their lives. This unit aims to make students more aware of the math that affects their lives all the time. Using Media to Connect Students To Math Students frequently wonder where they will use any of the math that they are learning. Teachers can introduce students to the many places in the real world that the students will be confronted by math by using different media newspapers, statistics published in the newspapers or on the internet, and cartoons. Media is such a large part of everyones life now. While students may not always think about how math is in their lives, students are always aware of different presentations in media. Students are aware of the popularity of movies, how much their class brings in during a fundraiser, and how their sports teams are doing. These different aspects of media can be used to help students relate to math and learn math in different ways. Students want to learn in a real world context. Media gives teachers an opportunity to draw students into the world of math. Cartoons can give students a way to relate to a new or even a known concept. Cartoons can make examples more memorable or can give students an introduction to a concept. Sometimes students will appreciate a cartoon because of what they know. Finding a situation funny will make math unforgettable. The more ways a student attaches new information to his/her experience, the more

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ways the students have to remember their new learning. Sometimes just drawing students in to a learning experience will help students learn more. Johnson, in Motivations Counts, writes about the importance of grabbing the students attention as soon as they come into class and immediately getting students working and thinking about math. While he has many ideas of how to accomplish this, one great introduction would be a cartoon, to grab the students attention and get students to begin to think about todays math concept. Another possible introduction to a lesson would be a statistic that would surprise or interest students. (Johnson, David, Motivation Counts, p. 11-12) In the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics magazine on teaching in the middle school, Wagener says Since mathematics is found in every aspect of life, it is important for teachers to provide experiences that help students find connections and develop an appreciation for math and its use in their lives outside school. She goes on the say that only by providing examples that are complex and the relevant do we give students the tools they will need. (Wagener, Lauren, A worthwhile Task to Teach Slope, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, p. 174) Bringing in newspapers has the advantage of authentic data. Newspapers can be mined for many different aspects of real life. We can use the sales in newspapers to make comparisons between the sales price and the original price. We can look at the square footage of a house and find the cost per square foot. We can look at unit pricing for many different items. Students can watch stock prices rise and fall. Newspapers are a great source of authentic material for the middle school teacher. Students in middle school especially have trouble relating to math. They consider it irrelevant to their lives. Frequently, students feel that they will never be using the math they are learning. They ask how any math we study is related to anything they are ever going to do. The activities suggested here should answer those questions, since we will use real world data to relate the math concepts to the students. The Seventh Grade Roadmap for 2009-2010 has seven units that must be covered during the school year. The units for seventh grade are: 1. Introducing Algebra: How can we use mathematics to describe change? CMP2 Unit: Variables and Patterns

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2. Similarity Transformations: When shapes shrink or grow, what changes and what stays the same? CMP2 Unit: Stretching and Shrinking 3. Ratios, Proportions, and Percent: How can we use the relationship between numbers to find missing values? CMP2 Unit: Comparing and Scaling 4. Reasoning With Uncertainty: What do you believe will happen in the long rum? CMP2 Unit: What Do You Expect? 5. Extending the Number Line To the Left: What lies on the other side? CMP2 Unit: Accentuate the Negative 6. Linear Functions: How do we use mathematics to describe constant change? CMP2 Unit: Moving Straight Ahead 7. The Third Dimension, Measurement and Geometry: How do we measure space? CMP2 Unit: Filling and Wrapping This PTI unit is meant to enhance different parts of the seventh grade math curriculum. Some of the ideas should deepen student understanding of a concept. All of the lessons and ideas should help to make the curriculum more relevant to students lives or to help them to relate better to the math ideas. Many of the ideas are not written out but rather suggested ideas that can be further implemented by a teacher. For instance, I suggest that Cartoon Corner be used to further enhance the curriculum, but I only have two examples that I presented using cartoons. Any cartoon might be added to different parts of the curriculum when a teacher can find a way to incorporate the cartoon into the lesson. The Cartoon Corner lessons are quite delightful and could also be used when a student is done with their present lesson early. The CMP curriculum does already have a lot of real world problems in it. I want to add to the curriculum in ways that will enlarge the way students can relate to the math.

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Objectives My objective is to help students relate more to the ideas in math. Students today always want to know how any math relates to their world. Real world examples are full of learning opportunities. With good planning, these real world examples can be brought into the math curriculum. By using current information, I hope to engage the students more in their own learning. Additionally, one of the problems with students learning in math is that students tend to think only about the type of math that we are doing right now in math class. When one is using math in the real world, one is frequently using more than one math idea frequently, one is using ideas from several very different math units. Students all too often seem to feel that once the test for one unit is done they can forget that and move on to learning the next unit, only to forget that one after the next exam. By using real world situations, I will have students use math from different units and break down the students compartmentalization of math. For instance, we will graph the rise and fall (just looking at change) of a stock. Since stocks rise and fall in eighths, fourths, and halves, this will also reinforce fractions. I have found that my incoming seventh graders know how to deal with adding positive and negative numbers. Using stocks will give students a chance to use their knowledge of positive and negative numbers as we begin the unit about integers. After tracking our stocks for 2 weeks, we could then look at the percentage change, taking the new value and seeing what percentage that new value is of the original value. This would serve as a review of fractions, negative and positive numbers, and percentages, while also giving students real data to graph. The percentages would allow students to see that a rise in one stock of 2 % is equal to a rise in another stock of 2 % even if one of the stocks rose more because its initial value was greater. Students would come to appreciate some of the richness of math in everyday situations and be better prepared to use the math that they know. In choosing to use examples that are current, I intend for students to see more easily how they might use math when they are no longer in school. As students see that there are real world situations where math can be applied, students may well begin thinking of other situations where math can be applied. To encourage this, I would challenge students to bring in any math examples they find in the newspapers, magazines, or other current sources. Also, by using comics, I hope to introduce a note of levity and help students learn to enjoy math more. Many of the math cartoons point out common mistakes and therefore will be especially good to enhance student learning. Other times, 275

cartoons introduce topics to consider and discuss, or lead to a way to investigate the math in the cartoon. Additionally, by asking students to be on the look out for cartoons that relate to math or other media that relate to math, I hope to encourage students to be more aware of math in every day life. Strategies To get the attention of the students to a lesson, I want to use cartoons and other media representations that may help students relate to the concept of the lesson. There are a lot of math cartoons in the book Cartoon Corner as well as in past Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School magazines, in websites, and in Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks. I want to make a concerted effort to use more of them in class to grab students attention either at the beginning of a lesson, or sometimes midway through. Some of the cartoons from Cartoon Corner I will use as they are, many will have the lessons presented with the questions that accompany the cartoons modified to fit the needs of my students more exactly. I have begun a collection of cartoons with notes of what aspects of math they could be related to so that I will have a base from which I can choose cartoons to reinforce math ideas as the year progresses. Students will be asked to be on the look out for any math related cartoons that they might encounter. Any cartoon a student brings in, I will try to incorporate into a school lesson fairly soon to encourage students to be on the look out for cartoons related to math. Just having students more aware of math in their lives will help them to realize its importance. Statistics will be taken from the Internet or newspapers to make sure that they are up to date. Students will be asked to look at what year information in our text came from. I will encourage students to speak up when they feel that information in our book is dated. The students and I may want to change some of the information in the book when we work on problems. For instance, there are problems with earnings for babysitting per hour that are clearly out of date. Students will feel more in control of their learning if when we get to a problem about babysitting earnings the students apply numbers that are truly up to date. Students will at times be given assignments to check out reports and see if they can find more current material. This will necessarily mean that the students and I will need to be looking at our sources of information and evaluating whether of not they are valid. Sometimes reports must be taken from several years ago or more. Any data based on census data is frequently going to be a bit out of date as it takes time to organize and consolidate the facts. The time it takes to accumulate certain types of data will be a subject of discussion.

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Students will be encouraged to look for different graphical representations of news and think about what the graphs mean and other ways that they could present the information in different graphical form. This will help students become aware of how to interpret graphs and be more aware of how facts are presented and whether or not the presentation affects the way the information may be interpreted. Students will discuss why material is presented in the form that it is presented in. Students will discuss whether presenting knowledge in a different form would change the way people thought about the data.

Classroom Activities Activity 1 For Unit 1, Introducing Change This activity is from Cartoon Corner. On p. 62, there is a John McPherson cartoon of Santa sitting on a chair with a child on his lap and a line of children waiting to sit on his lap. The child is saying, Lets look at your past performance. In 97 you delivered 32% of the toys I wanted. In 98 you slipped to 27%. Id really like to see those numbers up around the 50% mark. The questions that are suggested center around the trend being a linear equation that could be graphed and drawing conclusions from that. This would be a delightful inclusion to Unit 1, where students are looking at patterns, graphing the patterns, making predictions. and drawing conclusions. I would ask students to work by themselves for 10 15 minutes. Students would then be asked to work in groups and see if they have the same answers and try to see if they can all understand each others ways of coming up with the answers. Students would be asked to put their graphs and equations on large graph paper to share with the class. Later students would share their graphs and equations with the whole class. Then we could have a class discussion about their different ways of finding the answers. I want students to realize that not everyone will reach answers in exactly the same way. Students will benefit from seeing other ways to reach the answer, besides the method that they themselves used. Additionally, I would want to build on the use of percentages. Students will be asked to find: if the child really got exactly 32% and 27% of the toys he requested, how many toys might he or she have asked for? This could be written as a fraction (toys child received over toys child asked for). Equivalent fractions would be possibilities of how many toys the child asked for compared to how many the child received. Students could make up possible numbers of toys the child received or asked for and then explain how they found those possibilities. (I would probably refer back to this when the class begins ratios and proportions.)

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This could also lead to discussions of what percentage of what they ask for each student thought that they had received the previous Christmas. We could graph this. Having each group work to present the information would probably lead to different presentations. This could lead to a discussion about the best way to present this information. What are the advantages of a coordinate graph or a bar graph? I want to involve the students more in making decisions about presenting information. From the two years of information in this cartoon that the child gives, one would think that there will come a time when Santa brings no toys the child has requested. Its worthwhile to reflect on that idea. Students need to consider if they think that a likely event. Do they think that there is enough data to make a prediction? While it will be interesting to take this information as a firm trend that will continue, do they think that is likely? Are two years of information enough to draw a conclusion? I want students to think about these questions. While this cartoon is a joke, do we want to draw conclusions from such a small sampling of information? Activity 2 For Unit 1, Introducing Change There is a cartoon of a boy objecting to his teacher Just a darn minute -Yesterday you told us that x equals two! while the teacher writes on the board x + 2 = 5, x=3. I want to use this cartoon to introduce, or perhaps to enlarge on the idea of variables. (http://www.simonsingh.net/Mathematics_Cartoons.html) Many students find variables difficult to comprehend. By focusing on the changing nature of variables in different equations, I will help students to understand variables better. From here, I want to also bring in two variables. Two variables changing is at first very confusing, but by using the relatively simple problem of x + 2 = 5, and then changing the five to six, and then to a ten, the students will expand their understanding of one variable. The cartoon will help the students to feel that they do understand variables, which will then give them confidence to proceed to an understanding of two variables and how the variables can be related. After the students have changed the five to six and ten, I will ask students if we could do something to indicate that we are changing the value of what x + 2 equals. Students will see that we are changing the value and the question will be what do we call something where the value changes? I think that this might help students understand how two variables change and how that change can be expressed as an equation. Activity For Unit 5. Extending the Number Line To the Left This could be done close to the beginning of the unit. It depends on some knowledge of positive and negative numbers, as well as fractions, percents, and 278

graphing. In the past two years, I have found most of my students have some familiarity with positive and negative numbers. This builds on that. Since it also would use fractions, I would have students make a special number line with fractions so that they could more easily understand the work. I would want to cover this while students were building a good foundation of adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers. I have found in the past that practicing over time helps students to learn adding and subtracting integers better. While following the curriculum, I would add this unit to enhance students understanding while at the same time making sure that students have practice following whatever adding and subtracting algorithm they find most helpful with integers. Students would each first pick out a stock that they would follow for 2 weeks. (After that we would do some analysis of the changes that happened over the twoweek period.) Students would need to look up the closing value of their stock from the day before in the newspaper. Students would be asked to make a table that they would add the new value of their stock to each day. The students would graph the change in price of their stock each day on a coordinate graph. While we will have done some coordinate graphing by this time of the year, it will be good to have students see that we can do a coordinate graph with fractional parts. Students would take a few minutes at the beginning of each class to do this. I would expect each group of three or four students to check each others work to make sure that it is done correctly. At the end of the two weeks, students would look at the overall change in their stock. Next, we would talk about how much each stock was worth originally and how to relate this to the price change. Does the amount the stock was worth originally matter in how one should think about the change in price of a stock? In other words, if a stock sells for $20 and another stock sells for $30 and each one rises in price by $1, is that the same change? I would want students to answer this question individually, and then discuss it with their group before having a short class discussion about it. I expect that some of the students would realize that a rise in a $20 stock is worth more that the same exact same amount of rise in a $30 stock. This should be able to develop into a conversation about proportions. I think that this would help students realize that they want to compute the return on their investment as a percentage, or use proportions to make comparisons. This is a real life application. When money is tied up somewhere, one needs to think about the return one is getting. The return on ones money is best considered in relationship to the percent of return. Later on when we are doing probabilities, I would bring this up again. Probabilities can be used to look at the likelihood of losses. This is another real 279

life application for math. The class could look at individual stocks wins and losses. However, by taking the whole classes stocks, we could have a fairly diversified portfolio. Students could see how diversification of stocks works. We could look at how our stocks did altogether, rather than individually. For Unit 2, Similarity Transformations Students would be asked to locate 10 items for sales in newspaper ads. Students would then figure out the difference between the regular price and the percent of savings for each of their 10 items. Probably the students would tend to choose rather expensive items. But we could also look at those that have a variety of beginning prices. This could lead to class discussion about when it is worth driving a distance for a good sale. What exactly is a good sale? How much money is actually being saved? Even with 90% off, is it worth driving very far for an item that originally cost only $1? For Unit 3, Ratios, Proportions, and Percent One of the classroom activities that I would like to do, is to use newspapers to help students realize some of the ways that math is present in everyday life. Students could look at advertisements for houses. They could compare the square footage to the prices. Then students could go on to look at house blueprints and figure out the size of rooms from the blueprint and the ratio of the blueprint to the real house. Another activity that would fit into this unit is computing the unit price for different advertised products. We could bring in newspapers to the classroom and figure out different unit prices for items. This would help students to think about the importance of unit prices. Our book does use examples of figuring out unit prices of how much is charged per ounce for shampoo or other items. However, by using actual advertisements I think that the idea of unit prices would be made more real for students. For Unit 6, Linear Functions This unit emphasizes linear patterns, tables, graphs, and equations. It calls for making many comparisons of speeds and how far someone would go at each of several different speeds in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 hours. To build on this and give students more connections, I would have each student analyze the mileage a car gets per gallon of gas. Looking at the miles per gallon a car gets would make a real world connection for students. We would explore the meaning of the mileage a car gets. What 280

exactly does 28 mpg or 30 mpg mean in terms of costs per week, per month, or per year? Students would be asked to think about the cost of a car in terms how much it would actually cost to drive the car for different distances. Students would be asked to think about how far people frequently drive to work and how the different miles per gallon that the cars get would affect the cost of getting to work each day. First, I would have students look through the advertisements looking for cars for sale. I would suggest that they look for a car that appealed to them, but I would also make them aware that we were going to compare the cars in terms of miles per gallon for each car. Students would find many miles per gallon each car gets. It is possible here that it would be best to go to an independent evaluator, such as Consumer Reports for this information, or some students might find the information on the Internet. Any differences between an independent evaluator and advertised mileage could be used as reason to be cautious when buying cars (or other items). Then students would make up rate tables for how far each car could go with different amounts of gas. I would remind the students that this is really like a table of proportions students would be asked to write a short statement about how a table is like a table of proportions. From their rate table, students could make graphs of how far the different cars could go with different amounts of gas. Students would be asked to find out how far the average car goes in a year. Each car would need to have an equation made of how far it goes with different amounts of gas. Students could then figure out how far the average person drives each year and use that to find the yearly cost of gas for their chosen car. This would give the students some experience thinking about the effects of buying different cars. How much would someone likely spend on gas over the lifetime of the car? In their graphs, I would want each group to graph each of their graphs together on large graph paper. This would seem to be a good place to again address slope. Why are the slopes of some cars gas mileage steeper than others? What does it mean? What would a graph look like of an older car that had a lower amount of miles per gallon? What would a graph look like if it had better mileage than any of our cars have? I would want students to explain what slope meant in terms of this problem. Another comparison that could be made is average costs to repair a car. I would have students look at those figures. How much does each car that they like cost in repairs each year? This would allow students to once again think about comparisons (like they did in unit 3, Comparing and Scaling) and make more comparisons. 281

Additional section on graphing The unit I would like to do on different graphs does not exactly fit into any one unit. Students will be seeing graphs as a way to represent data all their lives. I would make it a theme for the third quarter of the year. The first unit of the year that we do, Variables and Patterns, introduces students to coordinate graphing. Getting used to this new way to graph is difficult for many of my seventh grade students, so I want them to have practiced coordinate graphing for a semester before introducing any more graphing. While reminding students of the many types of graphs they know, I dont want students to forget coordinate graphing. I would begin the unit by having a brief review probably for their homework of the many different types of graphs that they are familiar with. I would have a collection of graphs that I have collected from various sources that represent current data. This data would be a collection from the Internet, newspapers, and magazines. There are so many ways to represent data and students can easily become overwhelmed by the many different representations. I think that I would introduce the five different types of graphs to the students; graphs where area indicates frequency, graphs where shading indicates frequency, graphs where area and shading indicate attributes, graphs where position indicates attributes, and graphs that show variation (like box and whiskers). Wall and Benson point out that students benefit from becoming familiar with all the different types of graphs, since much data is presented in a myriad of different graphical representations. (Wall and Benson, So Many graphs, So Little Time, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, Vo. 15, No. 2, September 2009, p. 83) To help students become aware of different ways that the same data could be presented, I would start out giving students some data to graph without telling them how they should graph it. Students could work in their groups and display their graphs on large paper to make it easy to share later. As students started, I would walk around checking to see if students were using different types of graphs, if they werent, I would encourage some groups to use different types of graphs. I would use U.S. census data showing the connection between earnings and years of schooling. This could be displayed in a bar graph or in a coordinate graph. Some students might come up with other ways as well. Students would be asked to bring in as many different types of graphs as they could. As we collected more types of graphs, I would share each of the graphs and see if students could come up with a different representation of the same data. We would discuss what each of the representations tells us about the data, both 282

what information is given and what information is not given. This could be done first as a group activity, followed by a classroom sharing of their work. Especially at first, students would put their work on large paper to share with the class. As students became more comfortable with different ways of representing data, students could do this as homework. I think this would be a fun way for students to think about math and what different graphical representations mean. Students could try to find many different ways to represent the same data and reflect on which representation they find the most meaningful.

Annotated Bibliography/Resources Ellis, Amy B., Patterns, Quantities, and Linear Functions, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, April 2009 This is about approaches to teaching linear functions, looking at learning linear functions from patters and from real-world quantities. Johnson, David R., Motivation Counts; Teaching Techniques That Work, Dale Seymour Publications, 1994 This book addresses how to keep students motivated. Mr. Johnson writes about how to immediately grab students attention as they come to class and how to keep that attention and help students want to learn math. Johnson has many suggestions about how to organize a classroom to maximize student time spent learning. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Developing Essential Understanding of Ratios, Proportions and Proportional Reasoning, Grades 6-8 This book reviews understanding of rations and proportionality. It looks at the different parts of understanding ratios and proportions. What are the important ideas that students need to grasp to have a good understanding of proportionality? It breaks the understandings into smaller parts so that the teacher can better address the particular places where students may be having trouble. Reeves, Andy (Ed,), Cartoon Corner, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Reston, VA, 2007

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Here are collections of cartoons that can be used to introduce and serve as a basis for mathematical problems. Lessons are already made to accompany each cartoon. Additionally, these are cartoons with math themes and they could be used by a teacher with material made up to more directly relate to the needs of the students that teacher teaches. Stein, James D., How Math Can Save Your Life, John Wiley & sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, 2010. This book gives very practical applications for math to real life. Stein explains the times in life that one can use math and how it would apply in different situations. Stein relates math to whether or not one should buy a service contract when buying an appliance, how to figure the odds of winning at roulette and other games of chance, how math relates to whether or not you should guess on tests, and many other real life applications. Vennebush, G. Patrick, Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks, Robert D. Reed Publishers, Bandon, OR, 2010. Vennebush has compiled many math jokes, some of which would be appropriate for all ages. Wagener, Lauren L., A Worthwhile Task to Teach Slope, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, Vol. 15, No. 3 Oct. 2009. Wegener looks at the development of the conceptualization of slope and how to help students develop at good understanding of slope that connects what is done in the classroom with happenings outside of the classroom. Additionally, she emphasizes considering the level of cognitive demand that is required of students while implementing different tasks. Wall, Jennifer and Benson, Christine C., So Many Graphs, So Little Time, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, Vol 15, No 2., September 2009, p. 83 91. Wall and Benson indicate that students will be presented with various graphs their whole lives. Students will be expected to be able to interpret types of graph that they have never seen before. Wall and Benson divide all graphs into 5 categories: 1.) graphs where area indicates frequency; 2.) graphs where shading indicates frequency, 3.) graphs where area and shading indicate attributes, 4.) graphs where position indicates attributes, and 5.) graphs that show variation (like box and whiskers). Wall and Benson point out that students benefit from becoming familiar with all the different types of graphs. Watson, Jame M., Fitzallen, Noleine E., Wilson, Karen G., and Creed, Julie F., The representational Value of Hats, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, Vol. 14, No. 1 Aug. 2008. 284

Watson and Noleine point out how a top hat frequently is representative of data and how this representation helps students understand box and whiskers graphs. In box and whiskers graphs, all the four quarters area is not proportional to the amount of data represented. The smaller the box, the more concentrated the middle 50%. The box represents the same amount of data if it is large or small. This is counter to many of our other representations of data, and therefore very confusing to students when they first learn about box and whiskers graphs. By going from a top hat of data to a box and whiskers graph of data, students are able to understand the meaning of the spacing of the data. This is an easy way to avoid student misunderstandings.

Websites http://www.census.gov/ The website for U. S. census. It has a lot of statistical data. www.nctm.org National Council of Teachers of Mathematics website contains a tips for teachers, information about research and suggestions for lessons, and online activities for students under illuminations. http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/m/math.asp This website has math cartoons. http://www.simonsingh.net/Mathematics_Cartoons.html This website also has math cartoons.

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Appendices-Standards Pennsylvania 7th Grade Mathematics Anchors

M7.A.1.1.1 Convert between fractions, decimals and/or percents (e.g., 20% = 0.2 = 1/5) (terminating decimals only). M7.A.1.2.1 Compare and/or order integers, mixed numbers, fractions and decimals (fractions and decimals may be mixed no more than 5 numbers in a set to be ordered). M7.A.2.2.1 Write ratios to compare quantities (e.g., ratio of boys to girls). M7.A.2.2.4 Calculate and/or apply unit rates or unit prices (terminating decimals through the hundredth place only). M7.A.2.2.5 Select and/or use ratios or proportions to solve problems.

M7.D.1.1.1 Describe, extend or find a missing element of a pattern (show 3 repetitions of the pattern) fractions or decimals - may use only one operation from +, - or x whole numbers may use only one operation from +, -, x, or squares M7.D.2.1.1 Select and/or use appropriate strategies to solve one-step equations (no negative numbers). M7.D.2.2.1 Identify expressions, equations or inequalities that model mathematical situations (using whole numbers or decimals, no more than two operations and one variable).

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M7.D.3.1.1 Solve problems involving a constant rate of change (e.g., word problems, graphs or data tables). M7.E.1.1.1 Analyze data and/or answer questions pertaining to data represented in histograms, double bar graphs, multiple line graphs or stem-and-leaf plots. M7.E.3.1.3 Use data displayed in charts, graphs or tallies to find experimental probability M7.E.4.1.1 Formulate predictions and/or draw conclusions based on data displays (bar graphs

DATA TO BE GRAPHED FOR GRAPHING ACTIVITY Graph the following data: Schooling Completed Less that 9th grade High School Drop Out High School Graduate Some College Associates Degree Bachelors Degree Masters Degree Doctorate Degree Average Earnings $18,183 $23,013 $37.620 $46,109 $51,934 $66,997 $78,094 $94,487

SOURCE: US Census Bureau, 2003

1.

What graph do you think would be best to display this data? Explain why.

2.

Make a graph to display this data. (on other sheet of paper)

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3.

Can you think of other graphs that would also display the data well?

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