Louisiana State University

Instructional Models

LSU Team: Caroline Clark and Madison Pratt Mentor Teacher: Course: Algebra 2
Date to be Taught: School: Classroom Number:
th
Time to be Taught: Grade Level: 11 Lesson Topic: Statistics

Title of Lesson:

Mean

Source of Lesson:

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/maths/ttavghighclass.pdf

Description of Concepts to be Taught (include a brief summary of why the lesson is important to students):

Louisiana Grade Level Expectations (GLE’s):

● A2:S-IC.A.1
Understand statistics as a process for making inferences about population parameters based on a random sample from
that population.
● A2: S-IC.B.4
Use data from a sample survey to estimate a population mean or proportion; develop a margin of error through the use of
simulation models for random sampling.
● A2: S-IC.B.6
Evaluate reports based on data.

Student Learning Objectives:

Calculate mean.

Determine what skews a mean.

Calculate trimmed mean.

Safety Precautions:

Advanced Preparations:

What the Teacher Will Do
Teacher will assign project groups. Teacher will
explain the activity for the day. Students will be
asked to find and record the height of all the group
members.
Monitor students while they complete the beginning
of the activity.
Construct the table on a giant post-it note at the
front of the class. Teacher will instruct students to
post their heights to the table at the front of the
room.
TRANSITION
Students will finish the class table and sit down with their groups.
What the Teacher Will Do
The teacher will encourage students to observe the
streamers and investigate and share ideas on how
they can determine the average height of the class.
Teacher will encourage students to attempt to make
all the streamers the same height.
ENGAGEMENT
Eliciting Questions and Student Responses
What is an average? How do we calculate an
average of a data set?
Students may say: An average is the most
frequent data value in a set; an average is the
number that most of the data values are close
to; an average is the middle of the data set; we
can calculate by adding and dividing.
Where are you measuring from? What other factors
about the streamer do we need consider to obtain
an accurate measurement?
The streamer is a little stretchy so we need to
make sure we don’t stretch it and get inaccurate
measurement.
What units are you measuring in? Why do we need
to all measure in the same unit?
Inches, we all need to be the same so we can
compare the data.
EXPLORATION
Eliciting Questions and Student Responses
How can we use our streamers to find the average
height of the class?
We need to make them all the same height… We
can take some of the longer streamer and add it
to the smaller streamer.
Why does taking from the longer streamers and
adding to the shorter give us an approximate
average height?
Approximate Time:
What the Students Will Do
Students will be asked to get into their assigned
groups. Students will gather needed materials
(streamers and measuring tape).
They will place a streamer at the feet of each group
member and cut it at the top of their head so they
have one streamer for each group member that
represents the height of each member. They will
write their name on the streamer that is their height.
They will measure the streamer and record their
height in inches. They will record the heights of their
group members on a table at the front of the class
where the height of every student in the class will
be recorded.
Approximate Time:
What the Students Will Do
Students will bring all their streamers to the front of
the class and lay them on the floor, side by side.
Students begin taking pieces from the taller
streamers and adding it to the shorter streamers
until all of the streamers are the same length, or

TRANSITION
Students will measure and record the average height they estimated as a class and return to their seats.
What the Teacher Will Do
Teacher will use guiding and probing
questions to have students explain
what they just learned and apply it to
calculate the mean of the class data.
Teacher will instruct each group to share the
average height of the class after they calculate it.
Teacher will ask every group to share their answer
and be sure that everyone arrived at the same,
correct answer before moving forward.
TRANSITION
Students will record the average height of the class and wait for the next instruction.
What the Teacher Will Do
Teacher will begin the discussion about trimmed
data by challenging students to consider what
would happen if we removed the outliers.
Teacher will explain the trimmed mean and how to
calculate it.
We need to find the height that all the heights
are closest to.
EXPLANATION
Eliciting Questions and Student Responses
What is a mathematical way to calculate the
mean/average?
Students may know this from previous classes.
(If students need additional guidance) Let’s first add
the values in our data table. Now divide the values
but the total number of values in the table.
Can every group share the average height they
calculated for the class? Did anyone have a
different answer? If so, why could that be?
They didn’t divide by the total values or they
missed a value in their sum.
ELABORATION
Eliciting Questions and Student Responses
Let’s place the data in numerical order from least to
greatest. How far is the shortest person and the
tallest person from the mean we calculated?
What would happen to our mean if we did not have
these values?
The mean would go up or down depending on
how extreme the outliers are in either direction.
This is called a trimmed mean. We have 30
students in the class. If we trim the mean by 10%
that means we remove 10% of the total values from
each end of the data. How many values do we
close to the same length.
Approximate Time:
What the Students Will Do
Students will determine the
procedure to calculate an average or
mean—sum the values and divide by
the total number of values.
Each group will use this information to find the
average height of their group and then use the
table with everyone’s height recorded to find
the average height of the class.
Approximate Time:
What the Students Will Do
Students will consider what the mean would be
without the outliers.
Students will calculate the trimmed mean, by
removing the 3 smallest and 3 largest heights and
calculating the mean of the remaining data.

TRANSITION
Students will record the trimmed mean and sit with their groups quietly for the next task.
What the Teacher Will Do
Teacher will ask each group to share the trimmed
mean they calculated. If any group has an incorrect
value the class will investigate until the mistake is
found.
Teacher will review main ideas of the lesson.
remove from each end of the data?
Students should remember that 10% of 30
would simply be 3 and they deduce that they
remove 3 data values from each end of the data.
Calculate the trimmed mean.
EVALUATION Approximate Time:
Eliciting Questions and Student Responses What the Students Will Do
What is the trimmed mean? Did everyone get the Students will share their answers and investigate
same answer? If not, what are some reasons some any inconsistencies.
answers may have been inconsistent?
They may have removed the wrong data values,
only removed data values from one end of the
data and not the other, etc.
What is the mean? Students will participate in the discussion to review
The average of the data set. the main points of the lesson.
How do we calculate it?
The sum of the data values divided by the total
number of data values.
What is the trimmed mean?
The mean after removing some of the upper and
lower extremes.
 Louisiana State University
Instructional Models

LSU Team: Mentor Teacher: Lesson Topic:

Date to be Taught: School/Room:

Time to be Taught: Grade Level:

DATE Requested for Pick-up: DATE to be returned:

TIME Requested for Pick-up: TIME to be returned:

Items Requested # Requested # Returned

Streamers 6 rolls
Measuring tapes 6
Giant Post-It 1
Markers 6 packs

Collected by ______________________________________ Date_____________

Returned by ______________________________________ Date_____________