Download Lesson Plan Here: ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ Cards Lesson plan

What you need

• Uniform blocks or boxes (for example plastic takeaway boxes). The amount you will need depends on how many students will be simultaneously taking part in the activity. For a group of 5 we would recommend 50 boxes. For this reason this activity is best delivered in small groups.
• Printed data cards. We recommend the CensusAtSchool ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ Cards which are from New Zealand (). We have made a version of the cards sized at A6 each available here: NZ ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ Cards
• Printed category headings (optional). These specify the different attributes for example (red hair, black hair, blonde hair, brown hair). These are used for building the towers on top of. But the activity can still be down without these.

To-do before the activity

• Print out the data cards and cut them out.
• Stick one card onto each of the blocks / boxes.

Activity

• Ask students to stack cards by different variables (a good place to start is hair colour). They will create 4 towers, one for each hair colour.
• Once they have created each tower, ask which hair colour is the most common. They should say the tower which is the highest. This links the core idea of data points being linked to graphs, and the use of visualisations in ease of data understanding.
• This can be repeated with other variables such as eye colour, transport option, or whether they like pineapple on pizza.
• Another activity is ordering the boxes by numerical variables, if your class is confident.

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Here you can download:

• Outcomes in Early Years and Primary (Excel file)
• Outcomes in Secondary (Excel file)
• Topics for using data skills (Powerpoint with Outcomes)

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Briefing for Agents: The Scottish data V.I.K.I.N.G.S. are plotting a global catastrophe using classified information. We need you to infiltrate their base in Norway and stop them before it’s too late.

Description of learners’ task: Learners go through 7 Escape Room tasks through their web browser to stop the data V.I.K.I.N.G.S.

Timing: Approx. 60 minutes.

Materials: Online Escape Room

©Ìý, University of Edinburgh, 2024. This resource is licensed , unless otherwise indicated.

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Census At School (in New Zealand again!) have a lovely .  They also have data cards for the .

Across in USA the (who make the fab ) have a .

And here in Scotland we are planning a data cards game of our very own!  We have consulted Primary and Secondary teachers about possible topics and are now a partner on making an exciting game.  We can’t wait to share it when it’s ready!

Maybe you could make some data cards with your learners?  You could try making a Top Trumps card game.

If you’d like to learn more about how the Dragonistics cards worked, Dr Nic has some great YouTube videos on how to use them in class.

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In this activity that requires both creativity and understanding a data set, learners will create a fun, physical representation of a provided data set using the materials and tools available.

Take a look at our slides introducing the activity, data set, and some inspiration from past workshop participants’ creations!

Slides

The Kits

The kits can contain whatever reusable crafting materials or random objects you have lying around (the idea is to reduce waste by encouraging repurposing of objects, and also to use objects which can be easily dissembled and used again and again). However, if you’d like to get an idea of what you could use, or assemble a kit from scratch, we have a priced-up list of items you could purchase:

Fizzy ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ Kit List

The ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ

We have used a simplifed version of a data set from a of American undergraduate students about appropriateness of different behaviours in different locations.

This slide deck contains a version appropriate for secondary school learners: Secondary data set

This slide deck contains a version appropriate for primary school learners: Primary data set

If you would like to collect your own data on appropriateness of different behaviours, you can use this as a template.

We are in the process of gathering more data sets that would work well for this activity, which we will keep adding to below. You can also look through our ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ Sets resource for more ideas!

Planets data set: This data table, perfect for tying into a unit on space, compares features of the eight planets such as mass, orbital distance, length of day, and number of moons.

Inspiration

Here is what some of our previous teacher workshop participants have created!

Note: This activity was inspired by a some of our team members attended at the Information+ 2023 conference in Edinburgh. The workshop was organised by Sarah Hayes, Trevir Hogan, Rebecca Noonan and Denise Heffernan (Munster Technological University); (University of Bath); and Martin Lindrup (Aalborg University).

©Ìý, University of Edinburgh, 2024. This resource is licensed , unless otherwise indicated.

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In this activity, learners are introduced to ten different types of charts and graphs. The challenge is a ten-question quiz that can only be answered by understanding the information visualised in the different charts and graphs. This activity will boost data literacy and data visualisation interpretation skills, and can also be used to raise discussions about how effective each graph is, and what could be changed to make some of the graphs better.

All files are editable, so feel free to adapt to use with other graphs!

Editable graph posters

Questions

Multiple choice answer sheets

Answers

Powerpoint slideshow (this contains graphs, questions, and answers)

We also have a festive wintry version of this activity!

©Ìý, University of Edinburgh, 2024. This resource is licensed , unless otherwise indicated.

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In this activity, learners are introduced to ten different types of charts and graphs, all on festive topics. The challenge is a ten-question quiz that can only be answered by understanding the information visualised in the different charts and graphs.

Christmas graphs quiz

Graphs Quiz answer sheet

We also have a non-seasonal version of this activity.

©Ìý, University of Edinburgh, 2024. This resource is licensed , unless otherwise indicated.

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Have you used one of these books to teach data in your classroom and want to share your experience? Is there a book not listed below that you would recommend to other teachers? Get in touch!

David Smith (2018) If the world were a village. Bloomsbury Education.

David Smith (2016) If… A mind bending way of looking at big ideas and numbers. Wayland.

Miranda Smith (2022) If the world were 100 animals Red Shed.

Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West (2021) Calling Bullshit. The art of scepticism in a data-driven world. Penguin Random House.

Ron Ritchart, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison (2011) Making Thinking Visible: How to promote engagement, understanding, and independence for all learners. Jossey-Bass

 

Stuart Murphy (2022) Show and Tell! Great graphs and smart charts: an introduction to infographics. Charlesbridge Publishing.

 

James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti (2016) Where the animals go: Tracking Wildlife with Technology in 50 Maps and Graphics. Particular Books.

 

James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti (2021) Atlas of the Invisible. Particular Books.

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Find a visualisation to use as a starting point for a lesson or a conversation with your learners, or have your learners look through some examples before creating a data visualisation of their own.

©Ìý, University of Edinburgh, 2024. This resource is licensed , unless otherwise indicated.

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Briefing for Agents: Create an escape room activity for your fellow Agents. This will be a set of puzzles where a group of players will need to find all the clues and keys, decrypt all the codes and solve all the puzzles to exit the room within a time limit.

Description of learners’ task: Learners work in a group to create a themed escape room with a set of puzzles that needs solved to ‘escape’. Learners are encouraged to think about the logical progression of the puzzles and to think about the inputs and outputs of each puzzle.

Timing: The length of this project-style activity will depend on your learners and the depth and detail they go into for the planning. You will need to allow time for the groups to playtest their rooms and then run them with another group (or more).

Materials:

• • Slides
  • Step-by-step guide

If you require a resource in an alternative format, such as large print or a coloured background, please contact dataschools@ed.ac.uk detailing which resource(s) you require.

©Ìý, University of Edinburgh, 2024. This resource is licensed , unless otherwise indicated.

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