Using Bike-to-Work to practice Science Skills

Why produce a Bike-to-work activity to practice CER and other science skills? For one thing, most students know how to ride a bike. And, a lot of students ride bikes to where they need to go (bike, school, the mall, etc.) too. But, most importantly, everyone knows what a bike is and everyone can form an opinion about it too. The point of this activity is for students to come up with their own personal beliefs or claims about cycling to work. After, we have students analyse real data to see if it the results support their initial claims or whether they have to modify them.

Starting Bike-To-Work to start a class

The following is a quick outline of the steps I would probably do to use Bike-to-Work as science skills practice. I predict the activity would last roughly 15 to 20 minutes.

STEP 1:

[< 5 minutes]Tell students that it is Bike-to-Work day (or week). And, ask students how they get to school. Does anyone bike to school? Does anyone have a parent who bikes to work consistently?

STEP 2:

[~ 5 minutes] Next, tell students you have some census data regarding bike-to-work. Then, ask students to come up with some claims (use the word “facts” if it’s easier) they believe will be supported in the census data. If your students are stuck on what to write, ask them to answer the following:

• Which sex (male or female) tends to bike-to-work? If so, which sex tends to bike-to-work more? Why?
• Is biking to work age-dependent? If so, which age range (15-19, 20-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, or 55-64) tends to bike-to-work more frequently? Why?
• Do average commute times differ between age groups? If so, what’s the trend? For example, how is bike-to-work times dependent on age? Why?
• Do average commute distances differ between age groups? If so, what’s the trend? For example, how is bike-to-work distances dependent on age? Why?

STEP 3:

[5 – 8 minutes] After, have students look at the census data on the data sheet. Ask students, does the data support any of the claims you made? If so, which claim and which piece of evidence from the census data supports it? On the other hand, which of your original claims were wrong? What does the census data say instead? And, why do you think the reason behind the findings is?

For example…

Sample Graph based on Bike-to-Work data

STEP 4:

[3-5 minutes] Have students share their claims.

Times are approximations. And, in my classes, I would run this at the beginning of class as a bellringer or warm up activity.

Wrap Up

Finding interesting and relevant science exercises and graphs is always going to be challenging. Part of the challenge is finding something students find relevant. And, the other part of the challenge is finding nice graphs that tell a story. Hence, in this activity, I draw my data from census data. So much of the census data is not covered by the news. Yet, much of the data can be used to tell a story, such as the characteristics of a typical person who bikes to work. If you would like a copy of the data package, please click on the link below.

Until next time, keep it REAL.

Resources

Handout(s): 38 – A Story of Bike to Work

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The answer is simple: find relevant, fun science data for students to practice graph analysis. Yet, this is oddly difficult to execute because finding relevant, fun science graphs can be difficult. I should know. I spend a lot of time searching only to come up empty. Luckily, I (finally) found FiveThirtyEight.com, a website that features some fun relationships for students to analyse if you can find them.

In a previous post (#23), we summarize how to analyse a graph and provide a cheat sheet. Below, we talk briefly about FiveThirtyEight.com and provide a few of their best graphs that students may find interesting to analyse. At the end of this post, you can sign up to download a handout that contains all the graphs in this article.

A Place Where Pop Culture is Plotted

According to Wikipedia, FiveThirtyEight is “a website that focuses on opinion poll analyses, politics, economics, and sports blogging.” What goes unmentioned in Wikipedia’s description is how FiveThirtyEight authors occasionally use serious statistical analysis to find relationships between variables. Thus, FiveThirtyEight serves also as a model of how we can use science skills to draw conclusions about pop culture. Although pop culture doesn’t fall into the content of typical science curricula, we use pop culture here not for its content but for its ability to engage students in applying science skills to fun and relevant ways.

Here are some graphs (most from FiveThirtyEight) based on pop culture that would be fun and relevant to analyse in the science classroom:

Smart Matt Damon is Hot Matt Damon

Published on FiveThirtyEight

Sample Analysis Questions:

1. In the 3 movies where Matt Damon is the highest dreaminess rating, what were his corresponding smartness ratings?
2. What were Matt Damon’s roles in the 3 movies where he is considered most dreamy?
3. In the 3 movies where Matt Damon has the lower smartness ratings, what were his corresponding dreaminess ratings?
4. What were Matt Damon’s roles in the 3 movies where he is considered least dreamy?
5. Using the CER format, what can you conclude about Matt Damon’s movie roles and his dreaminess?

Old Olympians Ride Horses; Young Ones do Flips

Published on FiveThirtyEight

Sample Analysis Questions:

1. What is the most common age for female Olympic gymnasts?
2. What is the most common age for female Olympic equestrians?
3. How many male Olympic gymnasts are 18 years of age?
4. For what ages for male Olympic equestrians are there at least 6 participants with that same age? What age would those be?
5. Using the CER format, what can you conclude about Olympian age and sports?

Every Color of Every Lightsaber in ‘Star Wars,’ In One Chart

Published on FiveThirtyEight

Sample Analysis Questions:

1. What percentage of lightsabers in star wars are red?
2. What percentage of lightsabers in star wars are green?
3. How many times more red lightsabers are there compared to blue lightsabers?
4. Assuming a star wars movie has 120 lightsaber battles, approximately how many lightsabers in the battle would be red, blue, and green.
5. What is the least popular lightsaber colour? What percentage of lightsabers does the least favourite colour represent?

Chess’s New Best Player Is A Fearless, Swashbuckling Algorithm

Published on FiveThirtyEight

Sample Analysis Questions:

1. What year did computer elo scores finally exceed 2000?
2. What were computer elo scores in 1990?
3. What year did computer elo scores match the best all-time human elo score?
4. What is the range of computer elo scores from 1995 to 2005?
5. Using the CER format, what can you conclude about the trend in computer elo scores?

Comparing Apples and Oranges: Normalizing Competitive Eating Records across Food Disciplines

Published by Mike Woolridge

Sample Analysis Questions:

1. Which foods did competitors consume at least 5 kg of during competition?
2. Which foods had a consumption rate of approximately 0.2 kg/min?
3. Which food had the greatest total weight consumed during competition? Which food had the least?
4. Which food had the quickest rate of consumption during competition? Which food had the least?
5. Using the CER format, what can you conclude about the foods that had the greatest rate of consumption during food competitions?

Wrap up

To help science students practice graph analysis, fun and relevant graphs are helpful. The graphs above are fun, even though some may question how relevant to science content they are. We are constantly trying to find fun, relevant graphs for student practice. So, if you have any suggestions, please let us know. If you would like to download the handouts to this blog post, please click the link below.

Until next time, keep it REAL!

Resources

Handout(s): 24 – Fun Graph Analysis Practice

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Unfortunately, students struggle with graph analysis and, specifically, interpolation. Recent results from REAL Science Challenge Vol 2 Contest 1 support this claim. In questions where students need to practice interpolation (ie. Finding a value for y given a value of x and vice versa), only x% of students provide the correct answer. That means x students in a class of 30 struggle in graph analysis, in finding values from a graph.

In this post, we provide a quick overview and some examples on how to examine a graph and get some values through interpolation. At the end of our post, we have a cheat sheet available for download.

Why is graph analysis important?

Graph analysis is really about finding relevant information from a graph to solve a problem. Students need to know what information to extract from a graph before analysis can occur.

I. Basic Line Graph Analysis

Consider the following line graph:

BEFORE STARTING: Check the axes and their values.

If given a value that is plot along x-axis:

1. Find given value along x axis.
2. From this point, trace a straight line vertically (parallel to the y-axis) until it intersects with the line graph.
3. Then, trace a line horizontally (parallel to the x axis) from the intersect to the y-axis.
4. The value of y corresponding to the given x value is where the traced line intercepts with the y-axis.

For example, consider we want to determine the cost of installing a fence that is 17 feet in length.

Through graph interpolation, we can estimate that the cost would be roughly $410.

If given a value plot along the y axis:

1. Find given value along y axis.
2. From this point, trace a straight line horizontally (parallel to the x-axis) until it intersects with the line graph.
3. Then, trace a line vertically (parallel to the y axis) from the intersect to the x-axis.
4. The value of x corresponding to given y value is where the traced line intercepts with the x axis.

For example, consider we want to determine what length fence we can install for $275.

Through graph interpolation, we can determine that the fence would be 8 feet in length.

II. Basic Bar Graph Analysis

Consider the following bar graph.

The steps for bar graph analysis are similar to those for a line graph. However, since individual bars on a bar graph represent the range of possible values for a given x or y condition, a bar can potentially intersect with a range of x or y conditions. Thus, interpolating bar graphs can produce multiple results (unlike most line graphs that typically produce a single result).

For example, let’s say we want to determine what fiction books had $60 million of gross earnings.

1. We find given value along y axis. From this point, trace a straight line horizontally (parallel to the x-axis) until it intersects with the bar graphs.
2. Then, trace line(s) vertically (parallel to the y axis) from the intersect(s) to the x-axis.

Through graph interpolation, we find multiple values that match the original query (romance novels from 2006-2010 and mystery novels from 2006-2007).

Wrap Up

Learning to read a graph is an important skill every student needs to learn how to do properly. Being able to extract data is the first step towards analyzing data, and teachers need to teach it explicitly. And, students need to practice the skill too (REAL Science examples to follow in a future post). Click the link below to download our REAL Science – Interpolation Cheat Sheet.

Until next time, keep it REAL.

Resources

Handout(s): 23 – Interpolation Cheat Sheet

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Results from REAL Science Challenge Vol 2 Contest 1 support this claim. According to test results, about 40% of grade 8 and 9 students cannot correctly draw a conclusion from a graph (Note: we refer to questions #13 and #18 from the contest for this stat). That’s 2 in 5 students (or 12 students out of a class of 30) who struggle with this important science skill. And although a 60% success rate can be seen as being pretty good, it’s not good at all considering these students are in grade 8 and 9. That means they’ve had roughly 8 years of science education – and still can’t interpret graphs.

In this post, we go over the basics of interpreting graphs and coming up with conclusions in 4 steps. We provide some sample graphs for your students to analyze along with a cheat sheet for download.

4 Steps to in helping to better interpret Graphs

1. Identify what the graph represents.

First, look to see if the graph has a title. If it does, it may help to determine the purpose of the graph.

Next, look at the graph and identify the variable or element plotted on the x-axis (the horizontal axis of the graph). Do the same for the y-axis (the vertical axis of the graph).

One can identify what the graph represents by filling in the blanks: “The graph shows the effect of <variable x> on <variable y>”.

2. Check the units and scales on both x- and y- axis.

In other words, what is the unit of measurement of both x- and y- axis? Are measurements in metres, seconds, kg (or another unit)?

And, how much is one line worth? If the x- or y- variable increases one step, how much is that worth?

3. For one value of x, find its corresponding value for y. Repeat for each value of x.

In other words, for each condition along the x-axis, see what the result of that condition is along the y-axis.

4. Compare values of y. Depending on the experimental design, one can either:

A. Compare values of y for each value of x against each other. This is useful to determine which value of x has the greatest (or lowest) value of y. For example, let’s say a graph shows calories burned as a function of exercise type (ie. Running, swimming, cycling, weight training, etc.). If we compare the y-values ( ie. Calories burned) for each x value (ie. Exercise type), we can determine which type of exercise burns the most (or least) number of calories.

B. Compare values of y for each value of x against the control. A control is typically an experimental trial that is identical to other trials with one exception: it lacks a “treatment” of X. For example, say we want to set up an experiment to see how well a new brand of dish soap cleans dishes. First, I run a trial where I soak dishes in just plain water. This is the control.. Then, I do the same thing but I add the dish soap into the water. In both cases, say I measure how well the grease washes off the plate after soaking. If we compare the results of both trials, then we can determine if the dish soap works at all to remove grease. If the results are the same between the control and experimental condition, then the dish soap works as well as water (ie. It doesn’t work) to remove grease from dishes.

Of course, we can always use a hybrid of A and B. In the dish soap experiment, we can also test other dish soaps in the experiment too. That way, not only can we see whether or not a dish soap is effective at removing grease, we can also determine which is the most effective.

Practice

In order to get better at drawing conclusions from graphs, students need to practice. It’s that simple. So, where can we get science graphs and data for students to analyze? I like to use Public Library of Science, which is one of a few websites that publish science research articles and allow free access to the journals and their use. Not only is there a variety of science articles on the site, there is a variety of ways scientists choose to represent their science data and graphs (not just bar graphs). I provide a handout that includes some graphs my students have analyzed from the PLOS site.

Wrap Up

Drawing conclusions from graphs and data is one of the most important skills for students to be able to do. Students may struggle with this skill simply because no one has stopped to explain how to interpret graphs. Sometimes, it’s due to lack of practice. Sometimes, it’s both. Click the link below to download the handouts to this post – which include the notes above as well as practice graphs.

Until next time, keep it REAL.

Resources

Handout(s): 22 – Cheat Sheet and Sample Graphs for Interpretation

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We can teach students how to solve a particular problem, how to set up a question, but unless students are actually using the scaffolds we provide for them, they aren’t really using what we are giving them. So, how do we check student understanding?

Using Simple Tools, Complex tasks to Check Student Understanding

The answer is simple: we ask students to document their process when they are solving an open-ended, complex problem. Yes, this solution appears obvious. However, my ah-ha moment only came recently, when I changed a small Measuring activity I normally do when teaching students to use unit conversions in real life. To check student understanding, students had to not just give me their answer but explain how they got their answer in the extra space provided. The explanation can be in words and can also include sketches and calculations. In fact, some of the best explanations tend to include all three. This change – providing some extra space to write down an explanation – allowed me to see who was thinking about the problem and who was struggling (or just being lazy about their explanations). And the results were awesome. If you want a copy of the of this activity, you can download it at the end of this post.

Measuring without touching

In our measuring lab, students need to find the lengths of different distances using just a regular, 30-cm ruler. For example, using only a 30cm ruler, students find the distance down a hallway (or around our wing of the school) and the height of the school building (by observing the building from a distance).

Finding the length of a hallway is usually pretty easy for students. They normally measure the length of a single tile and then count how many tiles stretch down the hallway. This is meant as a primer for students. They learn to break down a length into smaller parts that can then be counted and summed up to find the total length. My stronger students not only know to count tiles but also document their conversions from tiles to cm in the space provided. That’s exactly what this exercise is meant to practice: the use of unit conversions in real life. Those who did not write down their conversions I was able to speak with.

Finding the height of the school is a little more difficult since students are only allowed to view the side of the building from my windows (ie. They are not allowed to go up to the building and touch it). However, the previous method of breaking down the side of the building into measurable parts and then adding up those parts can be used in this question. Since windows in a building are usually the same, students can measure the height of the window they are peering through. Then, they can use it as a reference to find other lengths and heights. Again, students who understood this concept were able to document it while those who struggled I was able to connect with.

Field Notes

• Students in our class do this activity in groups of 3 or less.
• Stress that students can only use a 30cm ruler. No metre sticks. No protractors. Just a ruler.
• Re-emphasize to students that they must document their process. It is not good enough to just provide the answer. One group of students in my class wrote “By visual inspection” for their documentation. I had them clarify and show their reasoning in greater detail.

Wrap Up

How do you check student understanding? How do you know students are using the tools you are teaching them? We need to ask them to explain themselves, to tell us not just what they know, but how they know it. Our unit conversion lab is an activity that uses simple tools to solve a seemingly difficult problem. Having students document their process will show which students need help and which students have a firm grasp. Because, at the end of the day, we want students to learn how to problem solve – not just learn formulas. If you want a copy of our unit conversion activity, please click the link below to download a copy.

Until next time, keep it REAL.

Resources

Handout(s): 13 – Small tool, great distances

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Using REAL life to Teach Unit Conversions

Early in my career, I used to teach unit conversions by getting students to determine the better deal between things sold at Costco and identical items sold at the regular supermarket. It worked alright, but not all students had Costco memberships so not all students could relate. Furthermore, if a student in my class came from a country without Costco, not only could they not relate but I would also have to spend extra time describing the magical place known as Costco (also known as Kirklandia, I think.).

Today, one activity I use to teach unit conversions incorporates 2 things all students from every country can relate with: money and gasoline. Basically, I get students to rank countries (from a set I determine beforehand) gas prices from cheapest to most expensive. The twist to this activity is that not all gas prices are stated in the same way in each country. Some countries state prices in dollars per gallon, while others state them in euros per litre. Even if 2 countries use dollars, dollars aren’t worth the same in both countries. For example, the US dollar is worth more than the Canadian dollar currently. Another good thing about this activity is that it requires students to perform 2 conversions instead of just 1. These conversions take place both for the denominator and numerator. With 10 countries on my gas price list, students get a lot of practice (and, for those who don’t get it, we get a lot of opportunity for discussion too).

We show you what we use to develop this activity so that you can develop your own. However, if you would like a copy of our activity (which has a list of countries using 2017 gas prices), you can click a link and enter your email below to get a copy.

Field Notes

• Using GlobalPetrolPrices.com, I research the price of gas sold in different countries of the world in Canadian dollars (CAD) per litre. It’s in CAD/L because I’m Canadian and I teach Canadian students. Adjust this to the currency you prefer.
• Using xe.com, I convert gas prices from Canadian dollars per litre to other countries’ currencies. Example, if the price of gas in the US is stated as 0.87 CAD/L, it changes to 0.70 USD/L. I also write down the exchange rate (currently 1 CAD = 0.806 USD) for later use.
• Using Wikipedia (Gallon), I convert volumes from litres to gallons for countries that use gallons. Note: there are 2 types of gallons (Imperial and US). Wikipedia states which countries use Imperial gallons and which use US gallons. Thus, the price of gas in the US previously stated as 0.70 USD/L converts to 2.64 USD/gal. If Germany is one of my countries on my list, I don’t convert the volume because German gas prices are in Euros/litre.
• I give the list of 10-12 countries with corresponding gas prices (stated in the way it would in their country) to students. They need to rank gas prices from cheapest to most expensive by first converting all prices to CAD/L.
• It is quite arbitrary what units you want students to ultimately convert to as a base unit. I use CAD/L because I’m Canadian and I have Canadian students (not to mention I teach in Canada).
• As an extension,  I get my students to write a CER (Claim Evidence Reasoning) statement regarding gas prices and countries after they write their rankings. If you don’t know what CER is, take a look at #4 – “Does Knuckle Cracking Lead to Arthritis?” 3 CER examples based on FUN Science and #9 – Does Aspartame help with weight loss? 3 CER practice activities from real science data.

Putting it all together

The key to making learning fun (and having it stick) is to make it relevant to students. That’s not a new concept – many have said that before me. Part of making it relevant is to work with something common to every student’s life. In the case of unit conversions, we use gas prices as the common experience. But, there are many different variations (ex. Milk or beef prices, video games or video game systems, price of magazines or books). The hard part is finding the common experience. Click the link below and get a copy of our activity.

Until next time, keep it REAL.

Resources

Handout(s): 10 – Gas Price Conversions Handout

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