People in cars

People in cars

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Further Resources
This task is about collecting data and using it to make a prediction.
 
How to do this task
Your teacher will direct you to a place near the school where you can safely watch the cars passing by and count the number of people in each car.
 
a)
On the tally chart below, record the number of people in the first 40 cars that pass by.
 
 

Number of people in car

Tally

Total

1

    

2

    

3

    

4 or more

    

 
b)
 
Use your results in a) to record in the table below the probability of there being 1, 2, 3, or 4+ people in a car.
 
 

Number of people in car

Probability

1

  

2

  

3

  

4 or more

  

 
c) Use your results to predict how many people will be in the next car that you see going past. __________

 

Task administration: 
This task is completed with pencil and paper, and other equipment and it requires physical space for students to move around and equipment.
 
Equipment:
A place where students can safely view cars passing the school and clearly see the number of people in them.
  • This task assesses students' ability to collect data on the number of people in cars that pass the school, put the data into a relative frequency table and use it for prediction purposes.
  • Students could collect the data in pairs or small groups, with one person calling out the number of people in each car and the other(s) recording the tally. They could swap roles after 40 cars have passed by.
Level:
4
Curriculum info: 
Maths, Statistics, Probability
Key Competencies: 
Relating to others
Keywords: 
probability, experiments, tally charts, prediction
Description of task: 
In this practical task, students collect data on the number of people in cars passing the school. They then record this, in a table and use the information to make a prediction.
Curriculum Links: 
This resource can be used to help to identify students' understanding of conducting probability experiments and writing likelihoods as fractions, decimals, or percentages.
 
Key competencies
This resource involves: Working collaboratively with another student, which relates to the Key Competencies: Relating to others

For more information see https://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Key-competencies.

Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Interpreting statistical and chance situations, sets 4-5
within the Mathematics Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 
 
a)

Results recorded in correct tally format, i.e., .
Totals completed and sum to 40.
b) Probabilities recorded as fractions, (e.g., 10/40 or 1/4) or as percentages, (e.g., 25%), for each number of people in car using results from a).
c) Prediction is based on probabilities given in part b).