NCTM Standards

Data Analysis and Probability is one of the five content standards developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. NCTM advocates increased curricular emphasis on this subject in response to the staggering amount of data that reaches all of us in everyday life. In teaching students to deal with data, the Standards document observes that "ideas from probability serve as a foundation to the collection, description, and interpretation of data" (NCTM, p. 51).

To develop probabilistic thinking at the middle grades level, it is recommended that students have numerous opportunities to make predictions and test their conjectures. Computer simulations can generate large samples of data quickly (10,000 throws of two dice in only a few seconds), which allows students to concentrate on analysis of the data rather than be distracted by its collection. The NCTM Standards note, however, that students need to develop their thinking by carrying out actual experiments as well. In virtual as well as hands-on experiments, comparing prediction with actual outcomes can provoke the questions and discussion needed to explore inconsistencies and student misconceptions. We believe this collection of resources will both provoke such exploration and develop your students’ ideas of probability.

For a detailed outline of the expectations outlined by the National Council for the middle grades level, see http://standards.nctm.org/document/chapter6/data.htm.

Reference

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2000). Principles and standards for school mathematics. Reston, VA: Author.

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Copyright September 2006 — The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0424671. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.