Understanding Mean (Average) as a former of "balancing" & The artistic elements of the Harris Burdick paragraph

 

I drew this example on the board to demonstrate to a student how the idea of an "average" really is a form of leveling out or balancing information.  For example, a set of blocks -- one with 3 and the other with 2 -- is averaged out into 2.5.  Two and a half is the balance between 2 and 3.

I was going to take the lesson in another direction (the hands on one I was talking about), but I started talking about the average temperature in February.  If you remember, February was wickedly cold.  Heather came up with the idea of calculating the Mean, Median, and Mode for all of the days in that month.  Here is the calendar we used:

Group 1 work

Group 2 work

Group 2

Group 1

Looking at the work at temperatures also hints at an upcoming unit on Integers involving positive and negative numbers (below or above zero).

The artistic expression of the Harris Burdick assignment will come in the form of variation on Storytelling, along with an open ended Art assignment.  Here is the handout the students received:

More details on this.  The presentation of the story (narrative paragraph) and the art will not be due until after March Break.

homework:  none, unless you are behind on something
                           have a good evening