Week 7 · Theme 1, Lesson 7 Collecting, Analyzing and Graphing Data · 3 lessons
2
Finding trends in my results
ICT P4 Term 1, Theme 1: pp. 34–37
GoalLook at data to find what happened, why, what may come next and what to do.
New words
analyse · to study data carefully to understand what it meanstrend · a pattern in data, such as going up or going down over timepredict · to say what will probably happen next
Explanation
When you analyse data you ask four questions. What happened? Why did it happen? What is likely to happen next? What should we do? When you have a lot of numbers, look for a trend. A trend is a pattern: the numbers go up, or go down, or stay about the same. Suppose a school library lends 12, 15, 19, 22 and 26 books in five weeks. Each week the number is bigger, so the trend is going up. Why? Maybe there was a reading challenge. What next? Probably more children will keep borrowing. What should we do? Maybe buy more books. A trend is a good guess, not a promise.
Worked examples
Look at the library numbers: 12, 15, 19, 22, 26. From week 1 to week 5 the number grew by 26 − 12 = 14 books. The trend is going up.
A class counts the bottles it recycles each day: Sunday 8, Monday 10, Tuesday 12, Wednesday 14. Every day it is 2 more. If the pattern continues, Thursday will be 14 + 2 = 16 bottles.
Marwan counts the children in the school garden at break: 20, 17, 14, 11. Every day it is 3 fewer. The trend is going down. He asks why: the weather is getting hot. He suggests building a shaded corner.
Class activity
Be a data detective. Look at the numbers 5, 7, 9, 11. Answer the four questions: What happened? Why might it happen? What is next? What should we do? Pretend the numbers are cups of juice sold each day at a school shop. Write one sentence for each question and compare with a partner.
Practice
1
Plant heights: 3 cm, 5 cm, 7 cm, 9 cm. What is the trend, and what is the next height if the pattern continues?
Going up by 2 cm each time. The next height is 11 cm.
2
Look at the graph. Is the trend going up or down? How many fewer cups are sold on Thursday than on Sunday?
Going down. 18 − 10 = 8 fewer cups.
3
Name the four questions we ask when we analyse data.
What happened? Why? What is likely next? What should we do?
4
Habiba says, “The trend means it will definitely happen.” Is she right?
No. A trend is a good guess about what is likely, not a promise.
