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.