This website contains a list of several valuable resources for teaching data collection and probability in the elementary classroom. Included are resource books, websites and journal articles that offer useful and practical ideas that teachers may implement in their classrooms. These resources were compiled by Shannon Hodder, a student of Education at Acadia University.

· Text Books

· Activity Books

WEB SITES

JOURNAL ARTICLES

TEXT BOOKS

Van de Walle, John A. (1994). Elementary School Mathematics (2^nd ed.)

Toronto: Addison Wesley Longman. *

This is an excellent teaching resource for any elementary math teacher. Chapter 19, called “Exploring Beginning Concepts of Probability and Statistics” would be particularly useful to a teacher when examining data collection and probability. It offers comprehensive explanations of the concepts involved, including why they are important to know at the elementary level. This chapter can help teachers better understand the concepts themselves, as well as assist them with their instructional approaches to teaching such concepts.

* This edition is now out of print. The new edition is called Elementary And Middle School Mathematics (4^th ed.) by the same author, John A. Van de Walle.

ISBN 0801332532

Cathcart, W.G., Pothier, Y. and Vance, J. (2000). Learning Mathematics in

Elementary and Middle Schools (3^rd ed.). Scarborough: Prentice Hall Canada Inc.

Chapters 10, Collecting, Organizing, and Displaying Data is very useful and focuses on the representation of data in graphs. It explains the various levels of development in children and their corresponding ability to graph information in different ways.

In Chapter 11, Interpreting Data: Statistics and Probability, the authors emphasize that students must be involved in the collecting of the data themselves through various means. Students must also engage in activities where they can test the probability of certain events occurring.

Both chapters offer helpful instructional hints and concrete activities that you can introduce to your students. The figures that accompany the text are particularly helpful.

ISBN 0-13-014094-5

RESOURCE BINDERS

Beesey, C. and Davie, L. (1994). Active Mathematics: Teacher’s Resource

Book Level 1 (K-2). Toronto: Gage Educational Publishing Company.

This Canadian resource is a teacher’s supplement to the books in the Gage Active Mathematics, level 1 series. Although it is most beneficial to have this series, the guide can stand virtually alone. The section on Data Collection and Representation is especially useful. It provides short exercises for teachers to do with students “for five minutes” and also full lesson plans that could be easily implemented into any primary to Grade 2 classroom. These lesson ideas could also be easily adapted to fit a higher grade level. The book also includes possible literature connections at the end of each section.

ISBN 0-7715-3230-X

Kelly, B. and Wortzman, R. (1996). Quest 2000: Exploring Mathematics,

Grade 5. Toronto: Addison Wesley Longman.

In Unit 6, called Collecting and Analyzing Data, Grade 5 students are expected to collect data, represent it graphically, and analyse it for patterns. Many of the activities provided involve answering questions based on the examination of a set of data provided. The ideas offered in the book are very useful and serve as a good point from which creative teachers can start to build meaningful lessons. There is definite potential to make the activities and exercises in the textbook more interesting and engaging to the students. The practice sheets provided are helpful, but should only be used to supplement a meaningful learning activity.

ISBN 0201552728

Interactions: Grade 5 (1994). Toronto: Ginn Publishing Canada Inc.

In Unit 9, Introducing Probability and Statistics, Grade 5 students are expected to conduct their own probability experiments as well as begin to analyse the data for patterns. The unit offers detailed lesson plans, which also includes discussion questions and extension activities. They also provide helpful hints for observation and assessment. The unit also includes related literary connections and teaching resources, such as videos and computer software. Also included are some helpful blackline masters, including game cards, a letter to parents and an assessment checklist.

ISBN 0-7702-2451-2

ACTIVITY BOOKS

Seymour, Dale. (1997). Probability Model Masters. Palo Alto, CA: Dale Seymour Publications.

This book contains over 100 pages of reproducible black line masters that can also be used for overhead transparencies. The models include playing cards (standard and non-standard), spinners, dice, heads and tails cards and colour cards. This is an excellent resource for any study of probability from P to 12 and can assist teachers in their preparation of probability lessons and/or probability game activities.

ISBN 0-86651-537-2

Bamberger, Honi. (1996). Super Graphs, Venns & Glyphs: Hundreds of

Great Data Collecting Activities. Toronto: Scholastic Canada, Ltd.

This book shows teachers how to incorporate data collection into their classrooms everyday. It emphasizes the need for children to have frequent opportunities to collect data and demonstrates the importance for children to become adept using this “real-life tool”. This book is full of great ideas to make collecting and interpreting data meaningful and fun for children. Teachers will enjoy the book’s easy and straightforward approach and illustrations.

ISBN 0590674773

The Math Forum: Ask Dr. Math (1994-2000).

http://mathforum.com/dr.math/tocs/prob.stats.middle.html

This website is particularly useful for teachers and students of mathematics because it gives them an opportunity to go on-line and ask “Dr. Math” a question about mathematics. The above URL brings you to dozens of questions and answers on Probability and Statistics from the archives of Dr. Math. Middle school students and teachers posed these questions. The answers provided by Dr. Math are very clear and can help simplify some aspects of probability.

Statistics Canada, 2000 http://www.statcan.ca/

This website is an excellent resource and has a wealth of data that can be accessed by teachers or older students, including information on population, economy, land and resources and communities. This is a complex site with great amounts of data that makes it difficult for elementary children to navigate. Teachers should check out the Education Resources section of the site.

Carol Hurst’s Children’s Literature Site

http://www.carolhurst.com/subjects/math/datagather.html

This site demonstrates how teachers can use children’s literature in all areas of the elementary curriculum. Under the section called Math and Children’s Literature, there is a list of over 40 picture books that can be used in connection with teaching “Data Gathering and Analyzing”.

Bloom, Stephen J. (1994, October). Data Buddies: Primary-Grade

Mathematicians Explore Data. Teaching Children Mathematics, 80-86.

This article details an excellent, but complex lesson plan in which grade one and two students are “buddied up” with someone they do not know from a different school. They need to collect information about themselves that they will send to their “buddy” at the other school. The goal is that the buddies will meet and have to identify each other based on the information they received about each other. The students help generate the list of important information to gather about their “buddy”. The lesson takes place over a course of two to three months and involves several exchanges of information between the classes. The students are involved in various methods of graphing. This is an interesting method of teaching students about data collection, and may be one that will prove meaningful to them.

Karp, Karen S. (1994, October). Telling Tales: Creating Graphs Using

Multicultural Literature. Teaching Children Mathematics, 87-91.

This article discusses how teachers can draw connections not only between math and literature, but also between math and literature with more culturally diverse characters. The author demonstrates how students can represent information taken directly from the story (or derived from the story in some way) using different graphical representations.

Moore, Deborah. (1999, May). Some Like it Hot. Teaching Children

Mathematics, 538-543.

In this article, the author details an excellent lesson on temperature where students collect experimental data and then represent data graphically. This lesson is most appropriate for Grade 5 or 6, but can be adapted for lower levels as well. Working with temperature can be most beneficial because it serves as a link between math and science, as well as introduce negative numbers and conversion (Celsius to Fahrenheit).