Data Analysis and Probability
A Step by Step process.

Data analysis and probability offers your child the chance to apply real life situations to mathematics. It can also be a lot of fun for the artist in your family!

Here you will find hints and tips to home tutor your child.

What is Data Analysis and Probability?

Data models are all around us. They are used in advertising, sporting events and even tracking your childs progress in school. It is used by scientists to track patterns in nature and nurses to track information such as a patients’ temperature, or change in temperature. Expose them to examples of data displays from magazines or newspapers.

Data Analysis is the gathering and methods of representing your information.

Probability is a method of calculating the likleyhood of something happening based on the information you already have.

What steps are invovlved?

There are two steps to take for a successful data analysis and probability project.

1. Gathering data (or facts) on a particular subject.

2. Presenting that data in a format that has a visual impact that offers an uncomplicated method of interpreting the facts.

There are a number of steps to take in the Data Analysis process.

1. What information do you want to know?

2. What questions do you need to ask?

3. Ask the questions to get the answers.

4. Decide on a method of displaying your results!

Examples where we have already involved our childrenin the subject!

We all have participated in data and statistical modeling with our children. At the pediatrician’s office, their height and weight are tracked from birth.

You have probably marked off their height on a door way or designated wall in your house.

At their last Easter egg hunt, or Halloween candy gathering!

How to extend a simple project for older children.

To continue with the Halloween candy example given above.

Perhaps your child could decide to make a bar graph to display their information. But there are many methods of depicting data and statistics.

Using their diagrams as prompts, you can ask your child questions such as:

How many different candies did you collect? How many different colored wrappers were there? How many different flavors were there?

And many more!

For older children you could add percentage problems along with average, median and mean.

If you have children of different ages you can introduce comparison exercises. How likely is it, that one child got more candy than another? Probable, likely or not probable. What type of activities are good for teaching data analysis?

There are many different activities in real life, just like this one, that you can get your child involved in. This will help them appreciate the applications of data analysis and probability in their surroundings. It will also teach them the value of data analysis and probability.

So how can you make the learning process of data analysis and probability fun for your child? Introduce it through an activity built around a subject they are already interested in. A sport, nature, toys,

If you go to the park or beach, encourage them to track different information in their math journal. When you get home you could have hours of math projects from one great trip!