Often absent
This is a level 4 statistics activity from the Figure It Out series. A PDF of the student activity is included.
About this resource
Figure It Out is a series of 80 books published between 1999 and 2009 to support teaching and learning in New Zealand classrooms.
This resource provides the teachers’ notes and answers for one activity from the Figure It Out series. A printable PDF of the student activity can be downloaded from the materials that come with this resource.
Often absent
Achievement objectives
S4-1: Plan and conduct investigations using the statistical enquiry cycle: determining appropriate variables and data collection methods; gathering, sorting, and displaying multivariate category, measurement, and time-series data to detect patterns, variations, relationships, and trends; comparing distributions visually; communicating findings, using appropriate displays.
Required materials
- Figure It Out, Level 4+, Statistics, Book Two, "Often absent", page 5
- a computer
See Materials that come with this resource to download:
- Often absent activity (.pdf)
Activity
This activity shows students that, when data that is found in one form (an attendance register) is translated into other forms (spreadsheets or different graphs), the patterns and the issues can become much clearer.
As with the previous activity, the students will have to create two spreadsheets if their spreadsheet for question 3a is done in table form, where each column represents a day and each row a week. If the students read ahead to question 3b, they will realise that, for a time-series graph covering the 4 weeks, the days of the week need to be in a column (the Monday–Friday sequence repeated for each week) and the absence data in another (preferably adjacent) column. For guidance on creating time-series graphs, see the notes on Wim’s Waffles (page 4 of the students’ book).
For the context of this activity to make sense to the students, they will need to view the data from the perspective of the teacher or principal. You could discuss with them how worthwhile it might be for a teacher (or principal) to keep attendance information on a spreadsheet.
1.
4.5
2.
a.
Algar, Vince |
4 |
Baker, Kellie |
4 |
Cook, Candice |
5 |
Dimes, Alisha |
0.5 |
Eyles, Francesca |
3 |
Falua, Georgia |
0 |
Gard, Josh |
3 |
Harris, Alyssa |
2 |
Iva, Sean |
2 |
Knapp, Heidi |
4.5 |
Lamb, Nathan |
3 |
Manu, Paul |
6 |
Norris, Thomas |
1 |
Oates, Cameron |
2.5 |
Parke, Mikey |
4 |
Reyes, Nick |
3 |
Scott, Aidan |
7 |
Taylor, Damian |
2 |
Toye, Jeremy |
4 |
Urry, Samantha |
2.5 |
Valli, Bernice |
1 |
Ward, Melina |
0 |
White, Angela |
5 |
b.
3.
a.
|
Mon. |
Tue. |
Wed. |
Thu. |
Fri. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Week 3 |
3.5 | 4 | 4 |
3.5 |
5.5 |
Week 4 |
3 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
4.5 |
Week 5 |
4.5 |
3.5 |
3 |
1 |
3.5 |
Week 6 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
4.5 |
b.
4.
Yes, she should be concerned if the attendance of this class is representative of attendance across the school. Reasons for concern include that:
- the trend is for students to be away on Fridays
- only 2 students in this class had no absences
- on no day was the whole class present
- the absence rate of this class is 15%.
If she finds that this class is not typical, she should find out why its absence pattern is different from that of other classes
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