Lisa O'Laughlin

These silly stem-and-leaf plot story problems will have students laughing as they make assumptions about their data. It was a fun task to assign for students after we covered stem-and-leaf plots in class.

Students will love to create a stem-and-leaf plot on a large leaf cut-out and hang it on the class tree. This handout provides two opportunities for students to create stem-and-leaf plots from relatable data (i.e. sports and books). I began by only requiring one stem-and-leaf plot, but the students had so much fun creating them on large leaf cut-outs and hanging them on our tree that I extended the project to two. I would buy the large leaf cut-outs at the local teacher supply stores. I coul

Students are asked to think critically about representing data graphically. The data is relatable to students (i.e. fast food restaurants and sports). Because students are asked to think critically before they graph, they will learn to make better decisions! One "best choice" is a bar graph, and the other "best choice" is a line graph.