My year 8 students were learning about working with grouped data. I used an activity that I pull out regularly when I need some data from the class to work with.
Students worked in pairs and one partner timed the other while they were estimating one minute. I asked the estimating student to close their eyes, say start, and then sit quietly until they think one minute has passed. Their partner used a stopwatch (on their iPad this time) to time the duration.
We recorded on the board all the times from the class. In my year 8s we took several tries each since we are a small group and I wanted to have about 30 pieces of data.
Then we went on with our lesson about grouped data. We got to consider all the authentic data questions–for example, how broad should the classes be to record this data? Also our outliers seemed very far from the bulk of the data. Students naturally asked about these. I like it when there is less need for me to point out these things. Because it is their own data they are intensely interested.
We had a bit of a giggle because one of the biggest outliers was my own estimate for one minute. Once I had my eyes closed I vastly overestimated how long one minute was. My teaching & learning assistant said I was having a nap for 114 seconds!
What data collection activities do you like to use?