Students’ Successes and Challenges Applying Data Analysis and Measurement Skills in a Fifth-Grade Integrated STEM Unit

An understanding of statistics and skills in data analysis are becoming more and more essential, yet research consistently shows that students struggle with these concepts at all levels. This case study documents some of the struggles four groups of fifth-grade students encounter as they collect, organize, and interpret data and then ultimately attempt to draw conclusions or make decisions based on these data. The activities in which the students engaged were part of an integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) unit that had students collecting and analyzing data both in the context of learning science concepts and in the context of evaluating prototypes for an engineering design challenge. Students were observed to struggle in a variety of ways, specifically having difficulty (1) properly using certain measurement devices, (2) coordinating quantitative data with the phenomenon being measured, and (3) properly interpreting the significance of variation, uncertainty, and error in the data. Implications for teaching and curriculum design are addressed.

[1]  Rodger W. Bybee,et al.  Scientific and Engineering Practices in K-12 Classrooms: Understanding a Framework for K-12 Science Education , 2011 .

[2]  Vincent N. Lunetta,et al.  The Laboratory in Science Education: Foundations for the Twenty-First Century , 2004 .

[3]  Lynn Arthur Steen,et al.  On the shoulders of giants: new approaches to numeracy , 1990 .

[4]  Carl Auerbach,et al.  Qualitative Data: An Introduction to Coding and Analysis , 2003 .

[5]  Dani Ben-Zvi,et al.  Research on Teaching and Learning Statistics , 2008 .

[6]  Ngss Lead States.  Next generation science standards : for states, by states , 2013 .

[7]  Joan Garfield,et al.  How students learn statistics , 1995 .

[8]  Refractor.  Uncertainty , 2001, The Lancet.

[9]  David S. Moore,et al.  Statistics among the Liberal Arts , 1998 .

[10]  A. Su,et al.  The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics , 1932, The Mathematical Gazette.

[11]  Jesse L. M. Wilkins,et al.  Preparing for the 21st Century: The Status of Quantitative Literacy in the United States. , 2000 .

[12]  Richard Lehrer,et al.  Developing conceptions of statistics by designing measures of distribution , 2011 .

[13]  Tamara J. Moore,et al.  STATISTICAL ANALYSIS WHEN THE DATA IS AN IMAGE: ELICITING STUDENT THINKING ABOUT SAMPLING AND VARIABILITY , 2011, STATISTICS EDUCATION RESEARCH JOURNAL.

[14]  H. Schweingruber,et al.  STEM Integration in K-12 Education: Status, Prospects, and an Agenda for Research , 2014 .

[15]  Jane Watson,et al.  Statistical Literacy at School: Growth and Goals , 2006 .

[16]  Ida Kukliansky,et al.  Evaluating a Contextual-Based Course on Data Analysis for the Physics Laboratory , 2014 .

[17]  C. Hirsch.  Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics , 1988 .

[18]  Dani Ben-Zvi,et al.  How Students Learn Statistics Revisited: A Current Review of Research on Teaching and Learning Statistics , 2007 .

[19]  Debra Monson,et al.  Making sense of third-grade students’ misunderstandings of the number line , 2017 .