Virginia SOL 7.PS.2.e
The Standard
Investigate and explain how using different intervals could impact the representation of the data in a histogram.
Virginia Standards of Learning for Mathematics · The student will apply the data cycle (formulate questions; collect or acquire data; organize and represent data; and analyze data and communicate results) with a focus on histograms.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students make more than one histogram from the same data set using different interval widths or starting points. They compare the graphs and explain how grouping choices affect the patterns shown.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students create accurate histograms of the same data using different equal-width intervals. They explain how interval size or starting point changes visible peaks, gaps, clusters, and spread without changing the data.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think changing intervals changes the original data or total frequency. They may double-count boundary values, expect the tallest bar to stay the same, or treat histogram bars like separate categories.
How to Assess It
- Give the data 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Have students draw histograms using interval widths of 2 and 5, then explain one difference in appearance.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Sort numbered data cards into labeled interval trays, then relabel the trays with wider intervals and compare the resulting bar heights.
Ask students which of two histograms makes the data look more spread out, and require evidence from specific intervals.
Play a matching game where students pair histogram cards made from the same data but grouped with different interval widths.
Collect class commute times, graph them using five-minute and ten-minute intervals, then compare which patterns each histogram highlights.
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Printable 7.PS.2.e Worksheet
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Related Standards
- 8.PS.2.g
Analyze data represented in a boxplot by making observations and drawing conclusions.
- 7.PS.2.g
Analyze data represented in histograms by making observations and drawing conclusions. Determine how histograms reveal patterns in data that cannot be easily se...
- 7.PS.2.f
Compare data represented in histograms with the same data represented in other graphs, including but not limited to line plots (dot plots), circle graphs, and s...
- 7.PS.2.d
Organize and represent numerical data using histograms with and without the use of technology
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