November 14, 2019

MEAN, MEDIAN, & MODE

1. GRADE LEVEL
A. This lesson is intended for grade 5 students.

2. SUGGESTED GROUP SIZE

A. At the beginning of the lesson, when collecting data, as a whole group

B. At the end of the lesson when creating booklets, individual instruction

3. SUBJECT
A. The elementary school subject that this lesson addresses is mathematics.

4. STANDARD
A. 5.0 To solve problems, communicate, reason, and make connections within and
beyond the field of mathematics, students will collect, organize, display, interpret,
and analyze data to determine statistical relationships and probability projections.

i. Specifically, standard (5)5.7: model and compute measures of central tendency

including mean, median, and mode [NS/PS 5.5.4]

5. OBJECTIVE
A. Students will understand how to collect data from classmates as a source to
analyzing data to find the mean, median, and mode.

6. MATERIALS NEEDED
A. White board and dry erase markers

B. Blank sheets of paper

C. Markers and colored pencils

D. Scissors

E. A pencil to record data

7. PROCEDURES
A. Start off by explaining to students what mean, median, and mode are. Write this
information down while explaining on the board so students can look back to it if
needed.

i. Mean is an average of the data. To find it you add up all the number in your data
and divide by however many numbers there are. For example, let’s say the
numbers in your data are 1,2,2,1,5,1. You would add them all together and you
would get 12. Then you would divide by 6 since there are 6 numbers in total.
Therefore, the average would be 2.
ii. Median is literally the number in the middle of the data. To find it you would
organize your data from the smallest to the largest number and then pick the
middle number. Using the example from above we would rearrange them to
look like this: 1,1,1,2,2,5. The two numbers in the middle would be 1 and 2 so to
find the exact median you would add those two numbers together and divide by
2. This would give you a median of 1.5
iii. Lastly mode is the number that appears the most on your data. So, if you we use
the same example again the mode would be 1 since it appears the most out of
the of all the numbers in the data.
B. To help them remember tell them about this song: Mode, mode, mode’s the most,
the average is the mean, median, median, median is the number in between (goes
along with tune of row row row row your boat).
C. Now that they know what mean, median and mode it’s the students turn to give it a
try. They are going to survey at least 10 of their classmates on one of the four
options below

i. How many siblings do they have?

ii. The day they were born on
iii. The month they were born in, (ex. For January they would use 1, February they
would use 2, March they would use 3, and so on)
iv. Or how many pets they have
D. Once they choose one, let them walk around the classroom and survey their fellow
classmates.

E. Once they finish collecting their data, allow them to create a pamphlet displaying
their findings

i. Give them a sheet of blank computer paper, tell them to fold it in half hot dog
style (in other words, vertically). Then make sure to fold it two more times, so
you’ll have three even sections. Cut on the creases, but not all the way, just about
¾ of the way.
ii. Give them markers, and colored pencils so they can input their data into there
pamphlet.

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 iii. Now that they have a pamphlet where they can record their data allow them to
write their findings into it.
iv. In the inside of the first flap they are going to find the mean, on the second the
median, and on the last section the mode.
v. On the outside of each flap they can put he name of each. For example, the
outside of the first flap would say mean.
vi. They can also include what each on is, in the corresponding section.
F. Once everyone is finished allow some students to share their data with the class.
(about 3-4 students).
G. Once finished ask them what they found most challenging, and what are other
scenarios where they could find the mean, median, and mode.

8. ASSESSMENT
A. Criterion referenced assessment
i. After the lesson is taught have a short quiz where students find the mean,
median, and mode of a collection of data ( should take no longer than 10
minutes). This will assess the student’s ability to calculate the mean, median,
and mode without being compared with the score of other students.