Transum Maths Software

Statistics

There are 366 different Starters of The Day, many to choose from. You will find in the left column below some starters on the topic of Statistics. In the right column below are links to related online activities, videos and teacher resources.

A lesson starter does not have to be on the same topic as the main part of the lesson or the topic of the previous lesson. It is often very useful to revise or explore other concepts by using a starter based on a totally different area of Mathematics.

Main Page

Statistics Starters:

Average Smile: Calculate the mean, median and range of the given scores.

Choc Bar Chart: Interpret data given in the form of a bar chart then create a new bar chart showing the given statistics.

Pie Chart: An exercise in estimating what the sectors of a pie chart represent.

Weather Maths: Eight mathematical questions about the current weather and times in four cities around the world.

 

Small images of these Starters ::  Index of Starters


Statistics Advanced Starters:

Ghosts or Papua New Guinea: A probability prediction based on a biased sample

Index of Advanced Starters


Suggested

List Reading

List Reading

Practise reading numerical information from lists of different types.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=lists

 

Curriculum for Statistics:

Year 5

Pupils should be taught to solve comparison, sum and difference problems using information presented in a line graph more...

Pupils should be taught to complete, read and interpret information in tables, including timetables. more...

Year 6

Pupils should be taught to interpret and construct pie charts and line graphs and use these to solve problems more...

Pupils should be taught to calculate and interpret the mean as an average more...

Years 7 to 9

Pupils should be taught to describe, interpret and compare observed distributions of a single variable through: appropriate graphical representation involving discrete, continuous and grouped data; and appropriate measures of central tendency (mean, mode, median) and spread (range, consideration of outliers) more...

Pupils should be taught to construct and interpret appropriate tables, charts, and diagrams, including frequency tables, bar charts, pie charts, and pictograms for categorical data, and vertical line (or bar) charts for ungrouped and grouped numerical data more...

Pupils should be taught to describe simple mathematical relationships between two variables (bivariate data) in observational and experimental contexts and illustrate using scatter graphs. more...

Years 10 and 11

Pupils should be taught to infer properties of populations or distributions from a sample, whilst knowing the limitations of sampling more...

Pupils should be taught to interpret and construct tables and line graphs for time series data more...

Pupils should be taught to {construct and interpret diagrams for grouped discrete data and continuous data, ie, histograms with equal and unequal class intervals and cumulative frequency graphs, and know their appropriate use} more...

Pupils should be taught to interpret, analyse and compare the distributions of data sets from univariate empirical distributions through appropriate graphical representation involving discrete, continuous and grouped data, {including box plots} and appropriate measures of central tendency (including modal class) and spread {including quartiles and inter-quartile range} more...

Pupils should be taught to apply statistics to describe a population more...

Pupils should be taught to use and interpret scatter graphs of bivariate data; recognise correlation and know that it does not indicate causation; draw estimated lines of best fit; make predictions; interpolate and extrapolate apparent trends whilst knowing the dangers of so doing. more...

Years 12 and 13

Pupils should be taught to understand and use the terms 'population' and 'sample'. Use samples to make informal inferences about the population. Understand and use sampling techniques, including simple random sampling and opportunity sampling. Select or critique sampling techniques in the context of solving a statistical problem, including understanding that different samples can lead to different conclusions about the population more...

Pupils should be taught to interpret diagrams for single-variable data, including understanding that area in a histogram represents frequency. Students should be familiar with histograms, frequency polygons, box and whisker plots (including outliers) and cumulative frequency diagrams more...

Pupils should be taught to interpret measures of central tendency and variation, extending to standard deviation. Be able to calculate standard deviation, including from summary statistics more...

International Baccalaureate

See the Statistics and Probability sub-topics, syllabus statements, exam-style questions and learning resources for the IB AA course here.

Exam-Style Questions:

There are almost a thousand exam-style questions unique to the Transum website.

Feedback:

Comment recorded on the 1 February 'Starter of the Day' page by Terry Shaw, Beaulieu Convent School:

"Really good site. Lots of good ideas for starters. Use it most of the time in KS3."

Comment recorded on the 14 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Inger Kisby, Herts and Essex High School:

"Just a quick note to say that we use a lot of your starters. It is lovely to have so many different ideas to start a lesson with. Thank you very much and keep up the good work."

Comment recorded on the 21 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Trainor And His P7 Class(All Girls), Mercy Primary School, Belfast:

"My Primary 7 class in Mercy Primary school, Belfast, look forward to your mental maths starters every morning. The variety of material is interesting and exciting and always engages the teacher and pupils. Keep them coming please."

Comment recorded on the 19 October 'Starter of the Day' page by E Pollard, Huddersfield:

"I used this with my bottom set in year 9. To engage them I used their name and favorite football team (or pop group) instead of the school name. For homework, I asked each student to find a definition for the key words they had been given (once they had fun trying to guess the answer) and they presented their findings to the rest of the class the following day. They felt really special because the key words came from their own personal information."

Comment recorded on the 18 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs. Peacock, Downe House School and Kennet School:

"My year 8's absolutely loved the "Separated Twins" starter. I set it as an optional piece of work for my year 11's over a weekend and one girl came up with 3 independant solutions."

Comment recorded on the s /Indice 'Starter of the Day' page by Busolla, Australia:

"Thank you very much for providing these resources for free for teachers and students. It has been engaging for the students - all trying to reach their highest level and competing with their peers while also learning. Thank you very much!"

Comment recorded on the 25 June 'Starter of the Day' page by Inger.kisby@herts and essex.herts.sch.uk, :

"We all love your starters. It is so good to have such a collection. We use them for all age groups and abilities. Have particularly enjoyed KIM's game, as we have not used that for Mathematics before. Keep up the good work and thank you very much
Best wishes from Inger Kisby"

Comment recorded on the 28 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Malcolm P, Dorset:

"A set of real life savers!!
Keep it up and thank you!"

Comment recorded on the 16 March 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs A Milton, Ysgol Ardudwy:

"I have used your starters for 3 years now and would not have a lesson without one! Fantastic way to engage the pupils at the start of a lesson."

Comment recorded on the 3 October 'Starter of the Day' page by S Mirza, Park High School, Colne:

"Very good starters, help pupils settle very well in maths classroom."

Comment recorded on the i asp?ID_Top 'Starter of the Day' page by Ros, Belize:

"A really awesome website! Teachers and students are learning in such a fun way! Keep it up..."

Comment recorded on the 28 May 'Starter of the Day' page by L Smith, Colwyn Bay:

"An absolutely brilliant resource. Only recently been discovered but is used daily with all my classes. It is particularly useful when things can be saved for further use. Thank you!"

Comment recorded on the 9 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Liz, Kuwait:

"I would like to thank you for the excellent resources which I used every day. My students would often turn up early to tackle the starter of the day as there were stamps for the first 5 finishers. We also had a lot of fun with the fun maths. All in all your resources provoked discussion and the students had a lot of fun."

Comment recorded on the 26 March 'Starter of the Day' page by Julie Reakes, The English College, Dubai:

"It's great to have a starter that's timed and focuses the attention of everyone fully. I told them in advance I would do 10 then record their percentages."

Comment recorded on the 8 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Smith, West Sussex, UK:

"I am an NQT and have only just discovered this website. I nearly wet my pants with joy.
To the creator of this website and all of those teachers who have contributed to it, I would like to say a big THANK YOU!!! :)."

Comment recorded on the 17 November 'Starter of the Day' page by Amy Thay, Coventry:

"Thank you so much for your wonderful site. I have so much material to use in class and inspire me to try something a little different more often. I am going to show my maths department your website and encourage them to use it too. How lovely that you have compiled such a great resource to help teachers and pupils.
Thanks again"

Comment recorded on the 2 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Angela Lowry, :

"I think these are great! So useful and handy, the children love them.
Could we have some on angles too please?"

Comment recorded on the 7 December 'Starter of the Day' page by Cathryn Aldridge, Pells Primary:

"I use Starter of the Day as a registration and warm-up activity for my Year 6 class. The range of questioning provided is excellent as are some of the images.
I rate this site as a 5!"

Comment recorded on the 10 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Carol, Sheffield PArk Academy:

"3 NQTs in the department, I'm new subject leader in this new academy - Starters R Great!! Lovely resource for stimulating learning and getting eveyone off to a good start. Thank you!!"

Comment recorded on the 10 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Mike Sendrove, Salt Grammar School, UK.:

"A really useful set of resources - thanks. Is the collection available on CD? Are solutions available?"

Comment recorded on the 3 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Mrs Johnstone, 7Je:

"I think this is a brilliant website as all the students enjoy doing the puzzles and it is a brilliant way to start a lesson."

Comment recorded on the 5 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Stoner, St George's College of Technology:

"This resource has made a great deal of difference to the standard of starters for all of our lessons. Thank you for being so creative and imaginative."

Comment recorded on the 3 October 'Starter of the Day' page by Fiona Bray, Cams Hill School:

"This is an excellent website. We all often use the starters as the pupils come in the door and get settled as we take the register."

Comment recorded on the 24 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Ruth Seward, Hagley Park Sports College:

"Find the starters wonderful; students enjoy them and often want to use the idea generated by the starter in other parts of the lesson. Keep up the good work"

Comment recorded on the 1 May 'Starter of the Day' page by Phil Anthony, Head of Maths, Stourport High School:

"What a brilliant website. We have just started to use the 'starter-of-the-day' in our yr9 lessons to try them out before we change from a high school to a secondary school in September. This is one of the best resources on-line we have found. The kids and staff love it. Well done an thank you very much for making my maths lessons more interesting and fun."

Comment recorded on the 1 February 'Starter of the Day' page by M Chant, Chase Lane School Harwich:

"My year five children look forward to their daily challenge and enjoy the problems as much as I do. A great resource - thanks a million."

Comment recorded on the 17 June 'Starter of the Day' page by Mr Hall, Light Hall School, Solihull:

"Dear Transum,

I love you website I use it every maths lesson I have with every year group! I don't know were I would turn to with out you!"

Comment recorded on the 12 July 'Starter of the Day' page by Miss J Key, Farlingaye High School, Suffolk:

"Thanks very much for this one. We developed it into a whole lesson and I borrowed some hats from the drama department to add to the fun!"

Comment recorded on the 14 September 'Starter of the Day' page by Trish Bailey, Kingstone School:

"This is a great memory aid which could be used for formulae or key facts etc - in any subject area. The PICTURE is such an aid to remembering where each number or group of numbers is - my pupils love it!
Thanks"

Comment recorded on the s /Coordinate 'Starter of the Day' page by Greg, Wales:

"Excellent resource, I use it all of the time! The only problem is that there is too much good stuff here!!"

Notes:

Statistics is the study of the collection, organisation, analysis, interpretation and presentation of data. It deals with all aspects of data, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments. It also includes describing mathematical relationships between variables and presenting these to an audience in a way that best conveys meaning.

See also the topics called Data Handling, Probability and Averages.

Statistics Teacher Resources:

A Show Of Hands: Produce a number of graphs and charts from a quick show of hands.

Pie Chart Creator: A quick and convenient tool for rapidly creating simple pie charts.

Correlation: Arrange the given statements in groups to show the type of correlation they have.

Human Scatter Graphs: Pupils move to positions in the room according to their data relative to the walls as axes.

Code Cracking Presentation: A slide presentation showing techniques for cracking simple codes and ciphers.

Centre and Variability: Make sense of and determine the reasonableness of the mean and median of a data set by looking at the values.

Comparing Graphs: Would you recognise a misleading graph if you saw one? Try this comparative judgement exercise to rate statistical graphs.

Normal Distribution Calculator: A customised online calculator for quickly finding areas under the normal distribution curve.

Significance: A slide presentation showing how to use the chi-squared test to measure significance.

Plinko Probability: A simulation of a Quincunx (Galton Board) which can be used to create the bell shaped curve of the normal distribution.

t-Test Revision: A slide presentation designed to revise the key aspects of Student's t-Test.

Statistics Activities:

List Reading: Practise reading numerical information from lists of different types.

Pin Drop: Estimate the probability of a drawing pin landing point up from experimental data.

Bar Charts: Practise constructing and interpreting bar charts for everyday situations.

Pie Charts: Develop the skills to construct and interpret pie charts in this self-marking set of exercises.

Averages: Test your understanding of averages with this self marking quiz about mean, median and range.

Histograms: Practise drawing and reading information from histograms displaying grouped data

Tally Charts: Read and draw simple tally charts to record and count different types of data.

Choose Your Average: This is a game for two players. You should know how to find the mean, median and range of a set of numbers.

Estimating Correlation: Practise the skill of estimating the correlation of data on a scatter graph in this self marking exercise.

Correlation: Arrange the given statements in groups to show the type of correlation they have.

Reading Graphs and Charts: Answer real-life problems from different types of graphs and charts including piece-wise linear graphs.

Mixed Medians: Find the medians of sets of different types of numbers in these self-marking exercises.

StatGrid Challenge: Arrange the numbers one to nine in a three by three grid to obtain the given means, medians and ranges.

Code Cracker: Crack the code by replacing the encrypted letters in the given text. There are lots of hints provided about code breaking techniques.

Cumulative Frequency: Online exercises on cumulative frequency for discrete and grouped data with exam-style questions.

Comparing Graphs: Would you recognise a misleading graph if you saw one? Try this comparative judgement exercise to rate statistical graphs.

Plotting Scatter Graphs: Plot scatter graphs from data representing a number of different everyday situations.

Box Plots: An exercise on reading and drawing box-and-whisker diagrams which represent statistical data.

Standard Deviation: Find how 'spread out' data is by estimating and calculating this measure of dispersion.

Odd Scatter Out: Just by looking at the scatter graphs can you decide which is the odd one out according to their summary statistics?

Alternatively, for the more advanced student, there is an ever-growing collection of Exam-Style Questions with worked solutions on the topic of Statistics.

Statistics Investigations:

Reaction Time: When the numbers appear hit the correct button depending on whether the numbers are even or odd

First Impressions: This activity will collect data about your first impressions of some optical illusions. You can then analyse the data to come to your own conclusions.

Statistics Videos:

Statistics video
Transum's Statistics Video


Averages Video: Revise how to calculate the mean, median, mode and range from lists and frequency tables.

It's not hard (Averages song): A really zany video revising mean, median, mode and range

Mean, Median and Mode Song: A free trial lesson from Math Upgrade dot com.

Tally Charts Video: A guided tour through the levels of the Tally Charts online exercise.

Scatter Graphs: Maths teachers from England construct a scatter graph from their heights and shoe sizes.

Visualising Data: Hans Rosling's famous lectures combine enormous quantities of public data with a sport's commentator's style to reveal the story of the world's past, present and future development.

Box Plots Video: Box plots, sometimes called box and whisker diagrams, are a useful way of visualising data.

Statistical Significance: This video explains numeric and categorical data and helps you gain an understanding of when to apply a t-test or a chi-square test.

Statistics External Links:

Links to other websites containing resources for Statistics are provided for those logged into 'Transum Mathematics'. Subscribing also opens up the opportunity for you to add your own links to this panel. You can sign up using one of the buttons below:

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Suggested

Odd Scatter Out

Odd Scatter Out

Just by looking at the scatter graphs can you decide which is the odd one out according to their summary statistics?

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=oddscat

 

Teaching Notes:

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Paul Metcalf, Twitter

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Transum,

Monday, November 25, 2019

"87% of statistics are made up on the spot."

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