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| Was there a debate on TV tonight? |
In this 21st Century Math Project, students will investigate a number of factors around our nation’s presidents. The age of a President at their inauguration, their age at death, and the number of children they have had become data to analyze with some of the standardized tests’ favorite statistical measures.
Name: US President Inquiry Project
Suggested Grade Level: 7-12 (Statistics skills)
Math Concepts: Mean, Median & Mode, Box & Whisker, Stem and Leaf Plots, Histograms
Interdisciplinary Connections: Social Studies
Teaching Duration: 2-4 Days (can be modified)
Cost: FREE PDF (1 inquiry project, 2 assignments with answer key)
PDF Version: US President Inquiry @ TPT
The Product: An inquiry project asking students the question, “Do U.S. presidents with the most children live longer after they have been inaugurated?”
What is the average age of the President at inauguration? How long do they live after their time in office? Does the number of children they have have any bearing on the length of their life? Let students investigate and uncover evidence to support a conclusion in this 21st Century Math Project.
When I use this project, it’s interesting to see the awareness my students have with their history of presidents. Help out your social studies department by giving your students some familiarity with some of the nation’s most important figures.
While the US Presidents are the window dressing, the guts of this project are 100% applied statistics. I selected what I have found to be the most frequently occurring statistics concepts found on standardized tests and packaged them into a series of questions. Using the Presidents in this assignment allows students to make more meaningful conclusions and practices crafting thought out, data-supported responses.