ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: Students will understand the process of graphing experimental data.
Goal(s):1. Students will graph experimental data.  2. Students will interpret data trends.  3. Students will communicate their findings.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. What is proper graphing technique for different kinds of data?  2. What tools can be used to graph data?  3. What are trends in data? 4. What is curve fitting?  5. What is the difference between linear and nonlinear data?
Objectives:1. Students will review and practice proper graphing technique. 2. Students will review ways to produce graphs (paper and pencil, graphing calculator, spreadsheet )  3. Students will review and understand trends in data.  4. Students will review and understand curve fitting.  5. Students will conduct experiments to gather data.  6. Students will graph data using proper technique. 7. Students will interpret data.  8. Students will communicate results about experiment and data through report and oral presentation.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer)will provide evidence of understanding?
Students will be given quizzes regarding graphing terms and techniques.
What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding? 
Students will be asked to identify and explain an everyday relationship that is linear or nonlinear.
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product)will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?
1. Students will perform experiments to collect data.  2. Students will graph and interpret the data.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?
Students will hand in a report product and graph as well as presenting an oral report of their findings.

Instructional Strategies

Students will use inquiry-based learning to investigate several relationships in the laboratory. These hands on experiences will be recorded and the results critically evaluated. Students will use project-learning as they prepare graphs of the relationships. Students will use the techniques of graphing scientific data to make their product. Students will interpret and share their recorded results with the rest of the class.