The Arizona STEM Acceleration Project

Basic Statistics and Google Sheets: A Height Experiment

Basic Statistics and Google Sheets: A Height Experiment

A 6th - 8th grade STEM lesson

Abraham Rosengard

6/25/31

Standards

Math: �6.SP.A.1 Recognize a statistical question as one that anticipates variability in the data related to the question and accounts for variability in the answers.

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Standards

Technology:

Standard 4. Innovative Designer -

Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.

Standard 5. Computational Thinker -

Students develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.

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Notes for teachers

• Students will be recording each others heights and typing them out on Google Sheets

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• Students will utilize Google Sheets functions to analyze distinguishing features between the boys’ heights and girls’ heights
• As this experiment deals with statistics, you may want to have at least 7 boys and 7 girls in the class (but not a requirement)
• If a teacher is worried about students feeling excluded or marginalized in this activity (specifically those student part of the LGBT+ community), I would possibly suggest modifying these slides to be about the differences in age groups in a singular class (e.g. 11 year olds vs 12 year olds).

List of Materials

• Each Student needs a Laptop
• Google Sheets
• Tape Measurer

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Objective(s):

• Students will conduct an experiment surrounding the heights of two different groups in the classroom�
• Students will tabulate data into Google Sheets and code functions to help analyze the differences between each group

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Agenda (20 - 40 minutes)

Lesson (10 - 15 minutes)

Assembly (10 - 25 minutes)

Intro/Driving Question/Opening

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Boy versus Girls: Which group tends to be taller in heights?

And what are some methods and mathematical metrics to help determine the differences in these groups?��

Intro/Driving Question/Opening

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Intro/Driving Question/Opening

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Intro/Driving Question/Opening

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Intro/Driving Question/Opening

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Hands-on Activity Instructions

• Students should measure each others heights, possibly in groups if sharing a tape measure, and record all heights in the class in inches (students may round to the nearest whole number).�
• Once all heights have been captured, they should be written clearly for everyone on the board, boys on one side, girls on the other side�
• Open new tab in google chrome, type in “sheet.new” (if this doesn’t work, you can make a new spreadsheet directly on Google drive).�
• Title sheet “Height Comparison”
• Make title of list ”Height (inches)”. You can bold them by doing “ctrl + B” or hitting the “B” Bold Button on the top of the page.

Hands-on Activity Instructions

• Make two pages at the bottom of Google Sheet (use the “+” button), and title them “Group 1” and “Group 2”. �
• Write out the height in inches for each group. Students can round to nearest whole number.�
• Do this for Group 2 as well. Then use the following functions as shown on the next page:

• =MIN(A2:A11)
• =MAX(A2:A11)
• =COUNT(A2:A11)
• =average(A2:A11)
• =MEDIAN(A2:A11)
• =STDEV(A2:A11)

=MIN(A2:A11)

=MAX(A2:A11)

=COUNT(A2:A11)

=average(A2:A11)

=MEDIAN(A2:A11)

=STDEV(A2:A11)

Hands-on Activity Instructions

• Have students compare and contrast the averages, and standard deviations from both groups to make a more generalized statement about which group is taller and which group has a larger (or smaller) variation (using standard deviation). �
• Also take a look at minimum and maximum values to see if that can support the argument.

Assessment

�When you are done, share the Google Sheets to your teacher for grading.

Also, have students also submit a written paragraph comparing and contrasting the two groups with the data received.

Differentiation

Have the students work together with other students when measuring data where they can take an active role in either measuring a person or writing the called out number down on the board.

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If averages and standard deviations are two difficult for the students, have the student look at the smallest and largest numbers for each group (minimum and maximum) and compare those for each group.

Remediation

Extension/Enrichment

Have the students look up the function for quartile 1 (Q1) and quartile 3 (Q3) on Google Sheets. Have them also subtract Q3 - Q1 to get the interquartile range (IQR).