Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose? Class/grade: V Age group: 9-11 yrs

To inquire into the following:
School: Pathways World School School code:300302
• Tran disciplinary theme
Title: Data Interpretation
Graphical representations can be used to make interpretations and
PYP planner
predictions about real world situations. Teacher(s): Neeti Bhalla Saini, Amrita Pant and Rima Singh (planning)
•central idea
Date: November 2008
Graphs are diagrams that visually show the relationship between the
numbers or amounts.
Proposed duration: number of hours 5 ½ hrs over 2-3 weeks

Summative assessment task(s):

What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?
2. What do we want to learn?
Real-World Math: What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective, and responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
Ask students to think of graphs that they have seen in the real world. Form, Function and Connection
For what purposes were they used? Have students hunt for examples
in books, in magazines, on the Internet, in newspapers, and in busi-
ness documents. Get the students to select one such graph and for- What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
mulate 4-5 questions on that graph. These questions will be based on
each students’ understanding of the Graph and how well she/he was •          
able to read the graph.     
   
Ask students to give examples of the type of data illustrated with a •     
pie chart and have a volunteer describe how the segment sizes in a       
pie chart are calculated using a protractor. Give a Bar graph to     
students to convert to a Pie chart using their skills and knowledge of 
Angles, Fractions and Measurement •     
 
    .

What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?

How will you display your data?
Why did you choose this type of table, graph or chart?
How did you decide on the scale for this axis?
What does the data tell you about your original question?
What did you find out? What evidence do you have to support your
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
 3. How might we know what we have learned? 4. How best might we learn?
This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?” What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to encourage the
Planning the inquiry
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving questions? Learning engagements:
Students may be broken into groups of 3 or 4 in which they discuss how to represent the given information about the
skills? What evidence will we look for? students of their class.They collect data from primary and secondary sources. For example, they collect data on
Pre assessment: Different data is provided to groups of students and they the most favored subjects in class.
have to articulate the information before them and present it in what ever way They organise and represent their information in a variety of ways. Children use bar charts in a variety of contexts,
they think its best represented. There would be groups where they decide to making decisions and drawing conclusions from their results.
present the data as Bar graphs (Pie charts would be less likely because they
Children decide when and how to group the data that they have collected. For example, after a survey on various
have studied Bar graphs only in the previous grade).
adults the students were able to decide the factors that affected the adults while they were going through puberty and
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of how these adults adjusted to the new experiences then.
the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
Construct and interpret frequency tables, bar charts with grouped discrete data, and line graphs; interpret pie charts.
Formative assessments:
Conversion graphs: They read metric and imperial units from measuring scales that show both units or from
conversion graphs; for example, they convert distances in meters in long-distance track events to distances in miles.
Would be ongoing and recorded through: On the board, draw a simple pie chart with eight sections. Tell students that pie charts (or circle graphs) are used to
represent data as portions (or segments) of a whole. Explain that just as they would see a pizza pie cut up into pieces,
• Rubric for Data Collection, Assimilation and Representation Pictori- a pie chart is divided into different pieces of data
ally (As graphs) Draw another circle on the board. Ask students to list five different percentages that add up to 100%. Connecting this to
• scores their understanding of Angles and that a complete circle 360º, hence deriving the fact 1% = 3.6º. They then are able to
construct accurate Pie charts with the given data.
• class observations
Using News papers and/or internet and/or books to find a Pie Chart/ Bar Graph and understanding the Graph and
• anecdotal remarks making questions on the Graph for others to answer them.
• informal questioning
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the
attributes of the learner profile?
Research (Observing) skills: Students observe and note carefully some graphs from the news paper
clippings, internet or books. Thinking skills (Application skills): Students will think critically on the use of
Graphs and need for data interpretation in daily life. They apply their knowledge to solve the problems of sorting
data and interpreting it for presentation and understanding in real life. Social skills(cooperating and time
management): Students will build on time management skills by completing the given work in allotted time
further build on their cooperation through group work. Thinkers and Knowledgeable: Build on these through
out the unit working on various tasks thinking to complete the tasks and adding on to their previous knowledge.
Cooperative: Students will exhibit cooperation while working in groups. Risk taker, Principled,
Communicators

5. What resources need to be gathered?

What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/mathematics.htm#Data_Analysis,_Probability,_and_Discrete_Math Create a BAR GRAPH: http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/grapher.html
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_5th_original.htm http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx?ID=3a742212b0344b15a77aa53376cd78cf BBC Game:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/shockwave/games/datapick.html
ICT Resources: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primaryframework/mathematics/planning/Year6/processing/Unit3/resources/ ; News Paper, Interactive problem solving books were used, worksheets
from edhelper,
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
Used the Teachers for conducting the surveys for the Unit of Inquiry, Peers helped in the survey too.

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Reflecting on the inquiry
6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?
Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students’
understanding of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the
planning and teaching of the inquiry should be included.
This unit gives so much opportunity for us to use the skills learned here into
the other units of inquiry. In fact this unit on ‘Data Interpretation’ also helps in
using the skills learned through some other Mathematical concepts as
‘Fractions, Measurement and Angles’
How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a
more accurate picture of each student’s understanding of the central idea.
This unit doesn’t not end at its summative task, because this skill will be
continuously used by all the units of Inquiry. Infact one such Unit of Inquiry uses
the understanding of Data interpretation for representing Facts related to the
Ecosystem through Graphs. That also becomes the second stage of assessing
the understanding of students while they apply their skills.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea
and the transdisciplinary theme?
This unit was not under any of the 6 Transdisciplinary themes but yes
it had a separate theme (Big Idea) of its own and the Central Idea
was some what aligned to the TD theme. Each time the students
either read and/or interpret a Graph or they present their information
through a Graph we come closer to the “Big Idea” we have chosen
for the unit “Graphical representations can be used to make
interpretations and predictions about real world situations.” Though
next year when we review our POI, we look at Data Interpretation as
a “unit of Inquiry” under the theme “How we organise ourselves”.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?
What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
•Develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to
learn?”
•Demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?
•Develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
In each case, explain your selection.
Students understood the need for data handling and effective sorting and
presentation of Data thereby understanding the form of the Data Interpretation.
They were able to express the Data in either forms of Bar or Pie Charts. They
identified the function of Data Interpretation in the real life and understood the
different applications. Later they were able to figure out the connections
between Circles, Angles and Pie Charts, how the skill of Angles comes handy
while converting Bar to Pie charts. And of course the use of Graphs in their daily
lives.
Research (Observing) skills: Students observe and note carefully some graphs from the news
paper clippings, internet or books. Thinking skills (Application skills): Students will think
critically on the use of Graphs and need for data interpretation in daily life. They apply their
knowledge to solve the problems of sorting data and interpreting it for presentation and
understanding in real life. Social skills(cooperating and time management): Students will
build on time management skills by completing the given work in allotted time further build on
their cooperation through group work
Thinkers and Knowledgeable: Build on these through out the unit working on
various tasks thinking to complete the tasks and adding on to their previous
knowledge.
Cooperation: the students were tolerant towards each others and worked well within
their smaller groups.
Inquirers: They inquired into the conversion of Bar to Pie charts and also in using
Conversion graphs.
Risk Takers: They approach unfamiliar situations and uncertainty with courage and
forethought, and have explored new ideas and strategies during the surveys they
conducted, which gave the courage to proceed further.
Reflective: They gave thoughtful consideration to their own learning and experience
while arriving at conclusions during the interpretation of the surveys.
Principled: The students were careful during the surveys and maintained respect for
the dignity of the individual and groups by maintaining the need for secrecy during
the surveys.
Communicators: The students were able to articulate the collected information and
communicated it well through Bar and Pie Charts (Visual communication).
Reflecting on the inquiry
8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?
Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any
that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.
Students questions:
How can we decide if a given data can be represented through a Bar or Pie chart?
This question actually led to an inquiry into finding out how to convert Bar charts to
Pie graphs, which was also our last line of inquiry. But since the student had asked
this question they took more interest in finding the answer to it.
At this point teachers should go back to box 2 “What do we want to learn?” and
highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the
inquiries.
What student-initiated actions arose from the learning?
Record student-initiated actions taken by individuals or groups showing their ability to
reflect, to choose and to act.
Some students while doing the summative task used their understanding of the unit
of Inquiry “Energy” and chose a Pie chart on Renewable sources of Energy
generation and which were the ones most used. It was very interesting to see
students make these connections to their real life.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
9. Teacher notes
This has always been my favorite unit, because Data offers so many
opportunities for inquiry.
Last year we had used Data interpretation for expressing some Ecosystem facts
pictorially. The students had to choose which Graphical picture would express
the given fact most appropriately. This year when we have our year end
exhibition we do hope to see more application of this unit. The students see a lot
of relevance in their day to day life through this unit.
We have seen students use their understanding of Graphical expressions and
make some very fine data collations and presentations.
Constructing Pie charts is another fascination for the students, because it
involves the use of multiple Mathematical skills (angle construction, finding
quantities of fractions, etc) which they have learned through the year. When the
students see the application of the Mathematical skills learned they realise the
importance of learning them.
Data Interpretations is a skill used by all nearly all the Units of Inquiry. We used
it for Surveys on two units of Inquiry “Re-discovering myself” and “Energy”.
Other than that, we have used the skills of representing the data pictorially in
other units too.
Through ‘Information Technology’ we often use Bar graphs or Pie charts to
present their final data.