CalculatingMeasuresofDispersion

ReportingCategory Statistics Topic CalculatingMeanAbsoluteDeviation,Variance,andStandardDeviation PrimarySOL A.9Thestudent,givenasetofdata,willinterpretvariationinrealworld contextsandcalculateandinterpretmeanabsolutedeviation,standard deviation,andzscores. RelatedSOL Materials GraphingCalculators Overheadorcomputergraphingcalculatortobeprojectedtotheclass(optional) Vocabulary mean,median,mode,range,measureofcentraltendency dispersion,meanabsolutedeviation,standarddeviation,summationnotation,variance (A.9) Student/TeacherActionsWhatshouldstudentsbedoing?Whatshouldteachersbedoingto facilitatelearning? 1. Presentstudentswiththefollowingscenario: StudentsinMrs.SmithsCommunicationClubareinterestedinhowmanyhoursthey spendwatchingtelevision.Theycollectedthefollowingdatawhichshowsthenumber ofhourstheyeachwatchedtelevisioninoneweek. 3,8.5,9,9,12.5,14,16.5,18,19,20.5 2. Askstudentstothinkaboutwhattheycoulddowiththisdata.Havethemworkinsmall groupsorwithapartnertodowhattheycanwiththedata.Somewillrepresentit graphically,findthemean,median,mode,range,etc. 3. Askstudentstosharewhattheychosetodowiththedata.Questionthestudents aboutwhatthegraphorstatisticsaysabouttheinformationaftereachideaisshared. Ex.Whatdoesthemeantellusaboutthedata?Whatdoesthishistogramshowus aboutthedata? 4. Inthediscussionattachthevocabularyofmean,medianandmodebeingmeasuresof centraltendencyandrangebeingameasureofdispersionorthespreadofthedata. 5. Tellstudentsanotherwaytomeasuredispersionistocomparetheelementstothe mean.Askstudentstohelpyoufindthedeviationofeachelementfromthemean,or thedistanceeachelementinthedataisfromthemean.Askstudentshowtheywould findthisdeviation.(Theyshouldsubtractthemeanfromeachvalue.)Createachartfor allstudentstoseewiththeoriginalelementsononesideandaspaceforthedeviation

fromthemeanontheother.Recordthemeanbesidethechart,usingandintroducing thesymbolof forthemean.

x x
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8.5 9 9 12.5 14 16.5 18 19 20.5

6. Havetheclasshelpyoufillinthechart.Askthemtocalculatetheaveragedistancefrom themeanoraveragedeviation.Askfortheirobservations(thedeviationssumwillbe zero).Askstudentsifthiswillalwaysoccurandwhyorwhynot.Oncestudents determinethatthiswillalwaysoccur,becauseofthenegativevaluesaskstudentshow theycouldensurethatanumberisalwayspositive.Continuethediscussionuntilthe ideaofabsolutevalueemerges. 7. Havestudentsfindthesumofdeviationsusingtheabsolutevalues.Introducestudents tothenameforthisdescriptivestatisticasthemeanabsolutedeviation.Askstudents tosummarizehowtheyfoundthemeanabsolutedeviation.Presentstudentswiththe formulabelowandhavethemdiscusshowitmatcheswhattheydidtocalculatethe meanabsolutedeviationandtheirsummaryoftheprocess.Ifyouhavenotpreviously discussedsummationnotation,youwillneedtoexplainthisnotation.

 8. Askstudentswhatthemeanabsolutedeviationcouldtellthemaboutthedata.What wouldahighmeanabsolutedeviationindicate?Whataboutalowvalueforthemean absolutedeviation? 9. Tellstudentsthatthereisanothermethodforfindingthedispersionaboutthemean. Guidestudentstothinkofotherwaystonothavenegativesinasetofnumbers.You mayaskthemquestionstogetstudentsthinkingabouttheirpastexperienceswith quadraticsandsquaringnumbers. 10. Havestudentsfindthesquareddeviations(youmaywanttoaddanothercolumntothe chartforthis).Thenhavethemfindtheaverageofthesquareddeviations. 11. Introducethisvalueasthevariance,anothermeasureofdispersion.Givethesymbol forthisvalue .Alsoshowtheformulaforfindingthevarianceandhavestudents explainhowtheformulacorrelatestowhattheydidtocomputethevariance.
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12. Askstudentswhattheunitofthevarianceis(hours ).Askhowtheycouldgettheunit tobethesameastheunitsinthedata(bytakingthesquareroot).Explainthatthisis calledthestandarddeviation( )andisanothermeasureofdispersion.Provide studentswiththeformulaandhavethemexplainhowthisformulaaddresses dispersion.

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13. Askstudentswhatthestandarddeviationcouldtellthemaboutthedata.Whatwould ahighstandarddeviationindicate?Whataboutalowvalueforthestandarddeviation? 14. Usingthedatafromthisproblem,instructstudentsonhowtocalculatethemean absolutedeviation,variance,andstandarddeviationintheirgraphingcalculators. GraphingcalculatorkeystrokescanbefoundintheTechnicalAssistanceDocumentfor A.9foundontheVDOEWebsiteInstruction>Mathematics>HighSchoolMathematics InstructionalResources.Theinstructionsincludeanothersetofdatawhichmaybegiven tostudentsforadditionalpractice.Youmayalsoneedtoaddressthedifferenceinthe calculatorusing x insteadof torepresentthearithmeticmean. Assessment Questions o Whataresomewaysyoucanmeasurethedispersionofasetofdata? o Explainhowtocalculateeachofthesemeasureswithoutacalculator. Journal/writingprompts o Explainwhythemethodsofmeanabsolutedeviation,variance,andstandard deviationareusedtomeasuredispersion. o Compareandcontraststandarddeviationandmeanabsolutedeviation. Other o Havestudentscollectdatafromtheirclassandcomputestandarddeviationand meanabsolutedeviation.(Usethegraphingcalculatorifthedatasetislarge.If calculatingbyhandkeepthenumberofdataelementslessthan10.) ExtensionsandConnections(forallstudents) Havestudentsremovetheoutlierinthedataandrecomputedthestandarddeviation andmeanabsolutedeviation.Whichseemstobemoreaffectedbyanoutlier? StrategiesforDifferentiation Havestudentscreateavisualdiagramtocompareandcontraststandarddeviationand absolutemeandeviation. Havestudentscreateagraphicorganizertoarrangethevocabulary,statisticsnotation, andstepsforcalculatingmeasuresofdispersion. Givestudentswithvisualdiscrimination/processingissuesasheetthatincludesthe formulasanddefinitionsinthegrayboxesandexampleproblemsforeachwithdataand correctnumberspluggedintotheformulas. Providewarmupproblems(priortothelesson)thatincludesymbolsusedinthevarious statisticsformulastohavestudentsbecomefamiliarwiththesymboliclanguage.For example,

o Evaluatethefollowingif x = 6, y = 2, z = 4 .

(x y )2
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x y z o Evaluatethefollowingif x = 9, = 4, = 4 .

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