Lesson 8

The mathematical purpose of this lesson is to generate data and use it to support or oppose mathematical claims based on a model. The work of this lesson connects to prior work because students used the normal distribution to model data in a histogram. The work of this lesson connects to upcoming work because students will use random samples to estimate population parameters and will be introduced to the concept of margin of error. When students use the results of simulation to support or oppose a mathematical claim, they are constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others (MP3).

For the activity What Is Reasonable? each student needs a coin or access to a device for the digital version of the activity. For the activity Is That Fair? students will each need to cut blank pieces of paper into 25 approximately equal sized pieces. It will be helpful if each student has a pair of scissors. In each activity 5 observations from each student will need to be collected to create a box plot. Statistical technology can help do that quickly.