Graphing


 * Graphing**

Graphing is a visual tool for problem solving that involves describing and interpreting the world with numbers and representing these understandings in a variety of visual formats (for instance, circle, bar, line graphs). It involves collecting, organizing, displaying, and interpreting data and requires making decisions and predictions based on the data. Graphing is used effectively to link estimation, measurement, statistics, and probability to other content areas such as social and environmental sciences.
 * Description**

The teacher:
 * Method**
 * helps students to recognize that many kinds of data come in many forms and that collecting, organizing, displaying, and thinking about them can be done in many ways;
 * assists student in using appropriate terminology about graphs and graphing;
 * identifies number-based problems that are interesting when expressed in graphs;
 * involves students in asking questions regarding statistics and their graphing;
 * presents applications of graphing to practical questions;
 * helps students to use graphing tools to discover patterns and make predictions;
 * assists students in actively exploring situations by experimenting and simulating probability models;
 * uses graphing strategies to connect mathematics, language, and other subjects together in authentic ways.

Graphing:
 * Considerations**
 * enables students to make predictions and modify them as more data are collected for a class project over a set time frame;
 * may require the use of computers to store and display data that can be integrated into
 * student projects
 * requires students to analyse the visual representation of quantitative information.


 * Illustrations from the Mathematics Classroom**

Students work in groups to record the temperature and weather conditions for one of Canada’s regions over the period of the unit. Groups then graph their statistics and develop generalizations about their region to share with the rest of the class.
 * Elementary**

Students solve density problems using the formula density = mass/volume. Students calculate densities in collaborative small groups, and then plot one graph of mass versus volume data showing lines for all five solutions. The teacher reviews graphing techniques, line of best fit, and qualitative determination of the slope of the line using one set of results.
 * Secondary**