Mississippi Math FA.S.45
The Standard
Understand the difference between correlation and causation and identify real-world contexts that depict each of them. (S-ID.9)
2025 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Mathematics
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students decide whether a claim shows two things changing together or one thing causing the other to change. They look for other possible explanations and check how the evidence was gathered.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students can explain why ice cream sales and pool visits may rise together without one causing the other. They can name hot weather as a possible reason for both. They can explain why random assignment gives stronger evidence that tutoring raised test scores.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often read an upward trend as proof that one variable causes the other. They may miss a third factor, like hot weather raising both ice cream sales and pool visits. They may also treat a before-and-after change as proof, even when other things changed.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Ice cream sales and pool visits rise together. Students randomly assigned to tutoring score higher than students not assigned. Which example shows a link, which supports a cause, and why?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Plot ice cream sales against pool visits using pairs (10, 8), (20, 16), (30, 24), (40, 32); mark heat as a possible shared cause.
Ask: When sunglasses sales and sunburns rise together, do sunglasses cause sunburns? Write another explanation.
Sort scenario cards into 'linked only' or 'cause supported,' including a randomized tutoring trial and sunscreen sales tracking sunburns.
Show a school newsletter claim that tutoring raised scores; ask what else might explain a rise from fall to spring.
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Printable FA.S.45 Worksheet
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