Central Tendency: Mean, Median, and Mode

Central Tendency: Mean, Median, and Mode 

Content Standards: CA/NY.6.SP.5.A,B,C&D

This week I wanted to refresh my memory about central tendency in data sets. Central tendency is a way of describing a ‘typical’ member of a set of results based on the characteristics of that member. The most common ways of describing central tendency are mean, median, and mode. Khan Academy has a great set of videos that explain these in detail, beginning with this one: Statistics intro: Mean, median, & mode (video). 

Once I was reminded of what they all mean, I wanted to develop “real life” scenarios that would get my students to explore mean, median, and mode. I found this video that gave some example problems and does a good job of explaining why you might use mean or median or mode in a given situation: (Video) Word Problems: When to Use Mean, Median, and Mode 

I also wanted to find a way to get students to explore these concepts without simply giving them word problems, but I struggled to come up with something like an investigation. Maybe I’ll come back to this in another blog post.


Comments

  1. Shannon UOctober 4, 2021 at 6:10 PM

    I guess I need to brush up on my vocabulary because I had no idea what a central tendency was! I enjoy the word problems that you found to help your students understand the "why" of using mean, median, and mode. Another thing you could tell your students is how mean, median, and mode can be used in science experiments (or experiments in general). Or you can take a survey from your class about sibling ages and get the mean, median, and mode.

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  2. Adiyah HarriganOctober 24, 2021 at 1:34 PM

    Reading this post brought back memories to when I learned: mean: median, and mode in school. Khan Academy is a pretty awesome site that provides students the opportunity to build on various skills. It also, serves the age levels of Pre-k throughout college. Developing "real-life" scenarios for students to be able to explore this mathematical topic I'm sure would be a great idea. Especially since, it's a concept they will use throughout their entire life. Nonetheless, keep up the awesome blog posts, Megan! (I'll revisit your blog to see if you come back to this topic- because I'd be interested to read all about it).

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