Students investigate a real question about their school community by designing strong survey questions, collecting quantitative data from the student body, and analyzing it with multiple displays and summary statistics. They use dot plots, histograms, stem plots, and box plots to determine which representation most clearly communicates distribution, center, spread, outliers, and possible conclusions. Over four weeks, teams build communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills as they revise their displays through peer feedback, reflect on their decisions, and prepare a public gallery walk and oral defense for Algebra 1 students.

Students will design strong quantitative survey questions, collect data from the student body, and organize it accurately for analysis. They will create and compare dot plots, stem plots, histograms, and box plots, then choose the display that most clearly represents the shape, center, spread, and outliers in a data set. They will interpret distributions using mean, median, mode, range, interquartile range, and standard deviation, and justify conclusions by evaluating how data can be presented well or misleadingly. They will communicate findings through a public visual display, oral defense, peer critique, and reflection on how collaboration and feedback improved their work.

Student teams will create a shared survey plan, a clean quantitative data set from the student body, and a draft analysis portfolio that includes dot plots, stem plots, histograms, and box plots with calculated measures of center and spread. Throughout the project, they will produce weekly revision artifacts such as annotated graph drafts, sticky-note feedback summaries from gallery walk critiques, and short audio reflection logs documenting analysis decisions and teamwork growth. By the end, each team will present a physical visual display for the Algebra 1 gallery walk that features multiple representations of their data, a justified choice of the most effective display, interpretation of distribution shape and outliers, and evidence-based conclusions. Teams will also complete a brief oral defense during the showcase debrief to explain their statistical reasoning, respond to peer and teacher questions, and reflect on how their collaboration changed over the four weeks.

Open with a gallery preview using real data displays from news, sports, health, or school sources, including strong and misleading histograms, dot plots, stem plots, and box plots. In teams, students sort the displays by “most clear” to “most misleading,” then defend their choices with evidence about scale, shape, center, spread, and outliers. After the critique, have students generate possible quantitative survey questions for the student body and vote on which topics would produce meaningful, ethical, and analyzable data. Close with the essential question and a short team challenge to predict which display type will best represent the class’s first collected data set.

Host a gallery walk for Algebra 1 classes where each team presents a physical display featuring their survey question, raw student-body data, multiple graphs, and a final claim about which representation best communicates the data. During the exhibition, visitors leave sticky-note feedback and ask questions about outliers, measures of center, and why the team chose one display over another. Close with a short student-led debrief in which teams explain what they learned from the data, how their display changed through revision, and how their collaboration developed over the four weeks.