Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Optional Preparation – Ground Rules For Classroom Discussion
10 minutes – Part A: Seeing The Homeless
20 minutes – Part B: Misleading Graphs
35 minutes – Part C: Evaluating Statistics In The Media
20 minutes – Part D: Calculating Five Number Summaries
5 minutes – Reflection

Part A: Seeing The Homeless

Preparation:

Consider using the Homelessness Australia factsheets below to familiarise yourself with factors that contribute to people becoming homeless to help guide the viewing and discussion of themes highlighted in Life After The Oasis clips.

Step 1.

Inform students that they will be investigating statistics and probability through the topic of homelessness. Assure the class that if they’re not familiar with the topic outside of what they may have seen on the media, that’s OK, as they’ll have the opportunity to learn more about the topic throughout the lesson.

Step 2.

Invite students to position themselves so that they can see the screen. Introduce the clip by explaining that they are about to watch the opening scene of the documentary film Life After The Oasis. The film follows the stories of five young people experiencing homelessness and examines their experiences of lived homelessness from youth into adulthood. Before you begin watching, remind students that the clip they are about to see features real people courageously sharing their stories.

As students watch the clip, invite them to take note of any statistics or information presented that they find interesting and how homeless people are portrayed in the clip.

Watch the following clip as a class:

Life After The Oasis (https://vimeo.com/347231056/5d854a4aba)

Step 3.

After watching the clip encourage students to share their ideas with the person next to them and then discuss as a class using the following prompt questions:

How are people experiencing homelessness portrayed in the opening clip?
Which pieces of information did you find interesting?
Do you think anything in the opening clip is misleading?

Part B: Misleading Graphs

Step 1.

Explain to students that statistics are often sources of information that are presented to show a certain point of view and can often be seen as misleading.

Invite students to form 5 groups and give each group a misleading graph from the Misleading Graphs Presentation Student.

Step 2.

In groups, ask students to interpret their graph and annotate their ideas. Each graph has a prompt question that can be used to help guide their discussion. Explain to students that this is an opportunity to look closely at how a graph presents information and how information can be misinterpreted or misleading.

Step 3.

Once all groups have had an opportunity to annotate and share their ideas, use a data projector to show the Misleading Graphs Presentation Student for the class to see. Click through the presentation and ask each group to present their graph to the class and explain why the graph is misleading.

The Misleading Graphs Presentation Teacher includes teacher notes in the comments section. It can be used to help students identify the problems with each graph and how data displays can be misleading.

Part C: Evaluating Statistics In The Media

Step 1.

Homelessness and its associated issues impact all parts of society in different ways. As such, there is an ever growing number of news and opinion articles available for students to read and interpret. Many of these have statistics and data statements.

Provide each pair of students with a copy of the Media Statistics Worksheet which includes a list of 14 article links and article questions. Allocate each pair an article and ask them to highlight or circle the name of the article they will be investigating. These articles come from a range of sources, however you may choose to use your own articles to suit your community and the needs of your students.

Step 2.

Explain to students that they will be using the statistics and information in the article to evaluate how data is presented and interpreted using the worksheet questions as a guide.

Allow time for students to read through their article and respond to the evaluation questions. Use this time to check in with groups, provide thinking prompts and answer any questions.

Step 3.

Invite pairs to join another pair to create a group of four. Encourage group members to describe their article and share how statistics and data were presented, and the impact that this had on their understanding of homelessness.

Step 4.

After students have had an opportunity to share their responses, facilitate a brief class discussion by prompting student thinking on how they feel about the information and statistics shared.

Encourage students to think about what this activity has to with learning maths. Use student responses to help introduce the next activity that focuses on manipulating data.

Part D: Calculating Five Number Summaries

The previous activities have concentrated on understanding how homelessness is presented in the media and how data is used to shape our understandings - either accurately or misleadingly. The next part of the lesson will look at raw data and work out how these statistics can be manipulated and presented.

The data set used in this activity is taken from Census Of Population And Housing: Estimating Homelessness, 2016 data cubes.

Step 1.

Provide students with the Student Worksheet and direct their attention to the Number of Homeless Australians by age group table. Allow a few minutes for students to read over the data and complete a 3-2-1 thinking strategy.

List 3 interesting things about the data
Make 2 judgements about the data
Suggest 1 way this data could be manipulated and presented

Step 2.

In pairs or small groups, invite students to share their 3-2-1 thinking. Encourage groups to share the different ways that this data could be represented.

If students do not suggest breaking the data into quartiles, seek students prior knowledge of the term quartiles. Ensure that students understand that quartiles divide a set of data into quarters, just like the median, breaks it into half.

Step 3.

Once students understand what quartiles are, model how to find the five number summary (minimum and maximum values, median and upper and lower quartiles) of one of the rows of data.

For example, to find the five number summary of the homeless people aged 75 and over.

Place the numbers in numerical order as follows:

23

33

123

136

141

473

518

846

The minimum and maximum values are the highest and lowest numbers which are easily found in an ordered list. So:
- Minimum value = 23
- Maximum value = 846

The median is the middle of the ordered list. As there are an even amount of numbers, we need to select the two middle numbers (136 and 141), add find their mean by adding them together, and dividing the sum by 2. So the median equals, 136 + 141 = 277/2 = 138.5 (or 139 rounded off to the nearest whole number).

To determine the upper and lower quartiles, divide (cut) the ordered list into four parts as follows:

23

33

123

136

141

473

518

846

The ‘cuts’ are between two numbers (as we have an even amount of numbers). So to determine the lower quartile (Quartile 1 or Q1) and upper quartile (Quartile 3 or Q3) we need to find the mean of the two numbers either side of the ‘cut.

Lower quartile (Quartile 1 or Q1) = (33 + 123)/2 = 78
Upper quartile (Quartile 3 or Q3) = (473 + 518)/2 = 496 (rounded off to nearest whole number)
Note that Quartile 2 (Q2) is the median.

Step 4.

The worked example calculating the five number summary of the homeless people aged 75 and over can now be used to guide students through the creation of their own five number summary.

Invite students to complete five number summaries on the Student Worksheet for the following data sets:

Number of homeless Australians by age group
Number of homeless Australians by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status

Take It Further: The five number summary data can be used to analyse for trends using Box and Whisker Plots. Information about creating and interpreting box and whisker plots can be found here (Representing And Comparing Data Factsheet).

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to complete the following prompt on the Student Worksheet:

In regards to using statistics to describe homelessness:

I used to think...
Now I think...

Differentiated Learning

Extension - Use the five number summary data calculated in Part C to create Box and Whisker Plots and analyse for trends. Information about creating and interpreting box and whisker plots can be found here (Representing and Comparing Data Factsheet).

Provisions for Learning Support - Ensure that student groups are of mixed ability in Part B and C so that those requiring encouragement and clarification around the content covered can do so with their peers. Depending on the support requirements of individual students in your class, you may choose to go through the worked example of Part D in small groups.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Life After The Oasis - Statistics in the Media

Go to

Summary

Learning intentions:

Students will...

Success criteria:

Students can...

Lesson Guides and Printables

Lesson Details

Skills

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

Additional Info

In this lesson