Using Standard Deviation |
Stable . |
The question they will answer with these numbers is Which of the cities has the most consistent temperatures? |
At this point students will collect data about the temperature of each the chosen cities for ten consecutive days, then calculate the average (mean) and standard deviation for each data set. |
Once students have logged on to the Internet, have them go to watch weather in three cities in their country using the link http://weather.yahoo.com/ |
Activity 1 |
Divide the students into 4 or 5 groups, |
Step 1 |
Step 2 |
Step 3 |
Step 4 |
This is not an easy question As you might expect, the standard deviation helps us with this answer. Remind them that the standard deviation is the average amount that a set of numbers differ from their mean. Also remind them that the more close a set of numbers are to each other, the more consistent they are. If they truly understand these facts, students should deduce that the most consistent set of numbers is usually ( but not always) the one with the lowest standard deviation. |