Summer SAVY Session 1, Day 1 – Data Discoverers
June 12, 2023–Day 1: What a fun day today in Data Discoverers as research scientists! It’s a smaller group this week, but everyone was so excited to calculate data and learn how to research! To get to know one another, students answered some questions about themselves and shared it with a partner. Each day they will gather more “data” on the same partner in order to create a mystery bag about their partner on Friday. Will their partner be able to guess which bag represents him or her? How well do we know ourselves?
In the morning, we focused on why learning how to research and analyze data are important in our everyday lives as well as the components of the research process. Just like there is a process for experimenting in science, conducting research also has a process!
There are 5 steps to being a successful researcher:
- Formulating a Research Question and Making a Hypothesis
- Gathering Data to Answer the Research Question
- Organizing and Representing the Data
- Interpreting and Analyzing the Data
- Drawing Conclusions and Presenting the Research Results
In recent times, technology has enabled anyone to spread information without regulation. The problem is not just that fake news is being produced, but we are unaware of how to identify it! I tested students’ knowledge of accurate and fake news by giving them both true and fake facts, articles, and reviews. I was impressed how well they could identify fake news! We deepened our understanding of the research process by looking at the steps more closely in an actual research study on backpacks. Nothing is worse than a sore back after a long day at school! Consumer Reports for Kids did a study and found the best backpacks to keep your back from hurting. Don’t be surprised if your child comes home and analyzes his or her backpack or asks for one with more support!
After lunch, we played Minute to Win It! in teams. This game introduced the first type of research we are going to study, experimental research! As we learn about each type, students will participate in a whole class and individual/group research project! Together we answered the question, “How many times can we hop on one foot in one minute?”. Students explored the concepts of mean, median, and mode using their own data set. Tomorrow we will make a line plot to organize our data and students will create their own experimental research study!
If students are wanting to extend their learning tonight, have them collect data, list numbers in the data set, and then find the mean, median, and mode! I would also encourage each family to compete against one another in a Minute to Win it! Game!
Ms. Beth Waight