As many others, when I first heard of Box-and-whiskers plot, the first thing that came to mind was…
But what does this have to do with math?! Through this learning progression we will be addressing this misconception and teaching students what a box-and-whisker plot really is and how it can be used to describe data. Students will begin by working with the measures of central tendencies to describe the center of a set of data. As students begin to form an understanding of these measures of central tendencies and how they allow you to interpret data students will be introduced to Tukey’s Five Number Summary and the box-and-whisker plot. Students will then learn how to use the box plot to interpret data, compare different data sets (shape, center, spread), and determine if there are any outliers within data sets
The Common Core Standards that are aligned to this progression are HSS.ID.A.1, HSS.ID.A.2, and HSS.ID.A.3. The following standards for mathematical practice are also aligned to this learning progression: MP3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, MP6: Attend to precision, and MP7: Look for and make use of structure.