Statistics for 2nd grade

[itsmylife]

Hi All.

 

I am looking for a workbook that focuses on Probability and Statistics for 2nd Grade.  DD came back with her test results - she needs to work more on graphs, charts, finding mode and median.  I looked at Amazon but couldn't find any workbooks that focused only on this topic.  Any pointers??

 

TIA

[OneStepAtATime]

Uhhh mode and median for 2nd grade?!  :huh:

Uh, yeah, that is interesting.  I agree with Sparkly.  That is a bit unusual.  But maybe they introduced it in a very gentle way?  You may very well have a hard time finding something for 2nd that targets those things.  You may have to go a few grades up and use it yourself to figure out a way to teach your 2nd grader...

 

Best wishes.

[itsmylife]

Uh, yeah, that is interesting.  I agree with Sparkly.  That is a bit unusual.  But maybe they introduced it in a very gentle way?  You may very well have a hard time finding something for 2nd that targets those things.  You may have to go a few grades up and use it yourself to figure out a way to teach your 2nd grader...

 

Best wishes.

 

The problems are very basic - give a set of numbers (double digit and under 30) and find the median and mode.  Extremely gentle but not gentle enough for my DD :-(

[OneStepAtATime]

Is she having any trouble in other areas of math?  Do you think it is the concept or the procedure or keeping the difference straight that is the issue?  I know in 2nd I would have had trouble with keeping the two straight since the names look similar and the procedures are kind of similar, too.  2nd just seems a bit young for a child, unless they are some sort of math genius.

 

 I don't know.  I guess maybe you could try studying just ONE of those for a few days, using real life application stuff, and reiterate on a regular basis the name of the term and WHY you would need to do this math procedure.  Try and get it really solid through practice and discussion.  After several days, if she seemed to be getting it, then switch to the other one, review it for quite a while til she seemed to really get that, then review both to make certain it is sticking and she can keep them straight?

[8filltheheart]

While I can understand teaching a 2nd grader mode, how on earth do you teach median accurately to students who do not know division unless you give the false impression that data sets are always made up of only odd numbers of data pts or that the answer is a number that comes in between 2 odd or even consecutive numbers? I would ignore any program that does if for no other reason than that it is completely unnecessary. Jeepers, teaching mode, median, and avg once they understand division is an incredibly easy concept. I cannot fathom the necessity before that.

[Arcadia]

The problems are very basic - give a set of numbers (double digit and under 30) and find the median and mode.  Extremely gentle but not gentle enough for my DD :-(

Found this example on a 2nd grade teacher website. She is using Houghton Mifflin Harcourt math. You might be able to find some help at eduplace which is the publisher's website.

 

"Range, Median, and Mode

How do I find the range, median, and mode?

Sample Data Set: 14, 10, 10, 13, 16

Step 1: Organize your data by listing it from the least to greatest number. 10, 10, 13, 14, 16

Step 2: Find the Range. The range of the data set is the difference between the largest and smallest number in the set. Students are looking to find the distance between the two numbers. To find the range, subtract the smallest number from the largest number in the set. 16-10=6

.

Step 3: Find the Median. The Median is the number which is in the exact middle of the data set. Students are taught to “buddy†up the numbers, starting at the outside and working their way in. The number left without a “buddy†is the middle number. 13

.

Step 4: Find the Mode. The Mode is the number that appears the most often. If working with a large set of numbers, students will need to set up a tally chart to determine this. 10"

[nerdybird]

Here is how I would do this problem. Thing is, I don't know if this would translate to a child. Maybe to mine since they are used to my ways, but perhaps not to yours.

 

Data Set 1: 14, 10, 10, 13, 16. I would have my students write the list vertically and place lines between each one:

14

10

10

13

16

 

1. What is the smallest number? 10. What is the biggest number? 16. 16 - 10 = 6. <<<This is the range.
2. How many numbers are there in the list? 5. Add the numbers together. You get 63. Now, divide 63 by 5. The answer is 12.6. Since the number after the decimal is 5, we round it up and we get: 13. <<<This is the median. This is also the average. My kids know about averages, so I would just tell them to "find the average of the numbers in the list". Much easier, imo.
3. Which number appears the most in this set? 10. <<< This is the mode.

Honestly though, these concepts are probably a bit much for her, expressed as is. It is a lot of work for a child to determine the range of numbers, then find the average, then the mode. If you use a number line, this may help with range operations. Determine the biggest number. Then find the smallest number. Cover up that number and count the remaining spaces. There is your range.

 

With averages, it will always be about practice, practice, practice. Addition. Subtraction. Multiplication. Division. Or you can do the buddy up thing mentioned above. This will only work when you have an odd number of variables/numbers. In the example above, there are 5 numbers in the set, so buddying up works. If there were 4 or 6 numbers in the set, buddying up would not work and the student would have to devise another method (averaging) to figure the problem out. That's why I would skip teaching the buddying up method altogether. It's a great shortcut in some situations but it doesn't always work. So I'd do the extra work of averaging now and teach the cool shortcut later once my kids understood how it works.

 

Really, these problems are intended to gauge how a child processes information and to teach them how deal with data and sets of numbers. Some children pick up on these things really quickly and others do not. The more familiar a child is with the operations above, especially multiplication and division, the easier these sorts of problems tend to be, imo.

[MomintheMountains]

I cannot even imagine trying to teach this to a second grader. An older student would be able to learn this in two to three lessons. This is too abstract for an eight year old.

[Farrar]

I guess what it boils down to is that most 2nd graders *could* learn this.  But when I think about my kids, there's a limit to how many new algorithms and procedures and vocabulary they can absorb in a year.  To teach them this would have required spending as much time on it as we were spending on things like regrouping and lapsed time and problem solving.  Like, a LOT of time  - time that would have had to come from other subjects or from math.  But when we do it later this year or early next year (we're in fourth grade now) it won't take anywhere near that amount of time.  So...  why?  Why do that?

 

What is the purpose of this test?  Why does the OP need to listen to it?  Just...  why bother?

[Farrar]

By the way, I feel that everything a K-3rd grader needs to know about "statistics" is contained in the book The Great Graph Contest by Loreen Leedy, which is a really cute book - similar to Measuring Penny, also by Leedy.  And basically it just covers different types of graphs and how to read and make them and what sort of creative things you can do with them.

[OneStepAtATime]

Hi All.

 

I am looking for a workbook that focuses on Probability and Statistics for 2nd Grade.  DD came back with her test results - she needs to work more on graphs, charts, finding mode and median.  I looked at Amazon but couldn't find any workbooks that focused only on this topic.  Any pointers??

 

TIA

I agree with farrarwilliams, can you give us some details?  What test did she take?  Why are the results important?  Because honestly, this is stuff that won't be that hard to teach later on, but seems rather pointless at this stage.  There are so many other important things to focus on in math at this point that would be more developmentally appropriate, irregardless of how "easy" the material may seem...

 

Sorry if a lot of us sound so negative on this.  Just puzzled and trying to understand.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I hate this stupid *&%$#@.  Seriously.  A second grader is really busy learning adding and subtracting with regrouping.  It's so cool if they can figure out how to do some simple bar graphs, too.  But this is just ridiculous.  There is plenty of time to learn to do this later!!!!!!!  Didn't we all learn something from the "mile wide inch deep" version of standards where kids do the same thing spread over mulitple years without ever actually learning it? this stuff makes me crazy.

[8filltheheart]

Here is how I would do this problem. Thing is, I don't know if this would translate to a child. Maybe to mine since they are used to my ways, but perhaps not to yours.

 

Data Set 1: 14, 10, 10, 13, 16. I would have my students write the list vertically and place lines between each one:

14

10

10

13

16

 

• What is the smallest number? 10. What is the biggest number? 16. 16 - 10 = 6. <<<This is the range.
• How many numbers are there in the list? 5. Add the numbers together. You get 63. Now, divide 63 by 5. The answer is 12.6. Since the number after the decimal is 5, we round it up and we get: 13. <<<This is the median. This is also the average. My kids know about averages, so I would just tell them to "find the average of the numbers in the list". Much easier, imo.
• Which number appears the most in this set? 10. <<< This is the mode.

Honestly though, these concepts are probably a bit much for her, expressed as is. It is a lot of work for a child to determine the range of numbers, then find the average, then the mode. If you use a number line, this may help with range operations. Determine the biggest number. Then find the smallest number. Cover up that number and count the remaining spaces. There is your range.

 

With averages, it will always be about practice, practice, practice. Addition. Subtraction. Multiplication. Division. Or you can do the buddy up thing mentioned above. This will only work when you have an odd number of variables/numbers. In the example above, there are 5 numbers in the set, so buddying up works. If there were 4 or 6 numbers in the set, buddying up would not work and the student would have to devise another method (averaging) to figure the problem out. That's why I would skip teaching the buddying up method altogether. It's a great shortcut in some situations but it doesn't always work. So I'd do the extra work of averaging now and teach the cool shortcut later once my kids understood how it works.

 

Really, these problems are intended to gauge how a child processes information and to teach them how deal with data and sets of numbers. Some children pick up on these things really quickly and others do not. The more familiar a child is with the operations above, especially multiplication and division, the easier these sorts of problems tend to be, imo.

While your explanation is perfectly fine for 4th grade, it isn't for 2nd. Second graders haven't learned division by Jan and even the division they do learn near the end of the yr is going to be limited up to the basic 12 tables. My 2nd grader is ahead in her math book and is just learning concepts like 10/5=2 and 10/2=5

[debi21]

File this under just for fun, but if you are not averse to computer games, my son adores the "Prankster Planet" game from the Electric Company on the pbskids website. Most of the mini-games are bar graphs and pie chart reading/making basically.

[nerdybird]

While your explanation is perfectly fine for 4th grade, it isn't for 2nd. Second graders haven't learned division by Jan and even the division they do learn near the end of the yr is going to be limited up to the basic 12 tables. My 2nd grader is ahead in her math book and is just learning concepts like 10/5=2 and 10/2=5

 

 

My oldest is in 4th grade for math at the moment and is probably more like 5th or 6th in terms of his actual ability. He has a LD though and is on the spectrum, so we work slowly and he enjoys the repetition of drills much more than most. My DD is 7 and in 2nd grade. She likes math and we focus on it a lot. She is probably a bit ahead for her age, but concepts like mean and mode would go straight over her head at this point.

 

I agree with most of the other posters that the expectation of a 7-8yo doing these sorts of problems is strange and misplaced. These sorts of calculations are best left until a child is older and has more practical experience with fundamental concepts like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I agree with the others that said this is just dumb.  Even if a  second grader could memorize the steps and "plug and chug" to get answers, there is absolutely no conceptual understanding of these topics.  Without ACTUALLY studying statistics, they are useless things to know.  I could see having students put together a bar graph of favorite desserts between cake, ice cream, and gummy bears, then asking students, "What was the favorite dessert for the class?"  This is essentially asking for the mode, but it actually carries some meaning here. 

 

Median- used to check to see if your data is right shifted or left shifted from the mean... i.e. totally useless to second graders!  LOL! 

Range- used in conjunction with standard deviation to know if your bell curve is more flat or peaked, helps to decide if you need to eliminate outliers for a better statistical model... useless to second graders!!! 

[itsmylife]

OP here - sorry, I probably should have given more information.  We don't homeschool - DD is in a private school which follows Everyday Mathematics.  The kids are introduced to Probability and Statistics as early as Kindy.  They have just started to get into "numerical" statistics - mode and median.  The teacher is awesome and does a great job supplementing the curriculum so I am happy overall this year with her math.

 

DD is quick on catching the concepts and building on it so I was very surprised that she didn't do well on the mean and median part of her assessment.  Which is why I would like to work with her on it.

 

Thanks!

[Cammom220]

Some of the responses are not respectful- even if we disagree upon whether a child should be learning these concepts in the second grade, OP was asking a specific question about materials. 

 

OP, if you're only teaching concepts, I would find a good on-line explanation, then create your own problems (vs. looking for a full blown curriculum). There are a couple of of good iPad apps that allow you to print worksheets on charts and graphs. 

[debi21]

I also want to suggest IXL.com for specific subject matter like this. You can do 20 free questions each day. There are four topics in 2nd grade under Probability and Statistics (including one on median, range and mode) and 10 topics under Data and Graphs. Takes five minutes a day to go through your free questions.