CCSS.Math.Content.6.SP.B.5
The standard
Summarize numerical data sets in relation to their context, such as by:
Common Core State Standards for Mathematics
What this standard means
Students need to describe a data set using numbers and words tied to the situation. They should report center, spread, shape, range, outliers, and what those facts mean in context. They also need to choose useful summaries, not just calculate every statistic they know.
Mastery looks like a student saying, “The median wait time is 12 minutes, but the range is large because one bus took 30 minutes.” Common sticking points are mixing up mean and median, giving numbers with no context, ignoring outliers, and saying “most” without checking the data display.
Ways to teach it
- Have students measure paper airplane flight distances, make a dot plot, then write three summary sentences using median, range, and outlier language.
- Ask students: Which describes our class shoe sizes better, mean or median, and why?
- Give a small data set and ask students to identify center, spread, shape, and one possible outlier in five minutes.
- Use local weather highs from the last 14 days and have students summarize what the temperatures were generally like.
Plan a lesson for CCSS.Math.Content.6.SP.B.5
Generate a complete lesson plan aligned to this standard, with objectives, activities, and materials. Free, no account needed.
Related standards
- CCSS.Math.Content.HSS-ID.B.6
Represent data on two quantitative variables on a scatter plot, and describe how the variables are related.
- CCSS.Math.Content.HSS-ID.A
Summarize, represent, and interpret data on a single count or measurement variable
- CCSS.Math.Content.6.SP.B
Summarize and describe distributions.
- CCSS.Math.Content.HSS-ID.B
Summarize, represent, and interpret data on two categorical and quantitative variables