📈 Pictures Tell Stories!
Graphs and charts help us understand data by showing it visually. A good graph can communicate information much faster than a table of numbers!
📊 Types of Graphs
📊
Bar Graph
Comparing different categories
e.g., favourite sports in class
📈
Line Graph
Showing change over time
e.g., temperature during a week
🥧
Pie Chart
Parts of a whole (percentages)
e.g., how I spend my day
📉
Pictograph
Using pictures to show amounts
e.g., pets owned by students
🏷️ Parts of a Graph
Every Good Graph Has:
- 📋 Title — what the graph is about
- 🔢 Axes — the lines that frame the graph (X = horizontal, Y = vertical)
- 🏷️ Labels — what each axis represents
- 📏 Scale — the numbers along the axes
- 🎨 Key/Legend — explains colours or symbols (if needed)
✅ Choosing the Right Graph
When to Use Each Type
- Bar graph — comparing categories (sports, colours, animals)
- Line graph — change over time (growth, weather, progress)
- Pie chart — parts of a whole (percentages, proportions)
- Pictograph — simpler data, younger audiences
🔍 Reading Graphs
Questions to Ask
- What does the title tell me?
- What do the axes represent?
- What is the highest/lowest value?
- Are there any patterns or trends?
- What conclusions can I draw?
✏️ Activities
Activity: Create a Bar Graph
Survey your class on favourite fruit. Create a bar graph with your data.
Data: Apple ___, Banana ___, Orange ___, Kiwifruit ___, Other ___
Draw your bar graph here (include title, labels, scale)
👩🏫 Teacher Notes
Curriculum Links
- Mathematics: Statistics — data representation
Curriculum alignment
- Statistics — Knowledge: - Categorical data can be visualised through dot plots and bar graphs. - Paired categorical variables can be visualised through a stacked bar graph or a clustered bar graph. -…
- Statistics — Knowledge: - The response to a statistical question includes findings that are summarised and interpreted in context and using evidence. - The tapering sides of a data visualisation are …
- Statistics — Practices: - For a given set of data, choosing and constructing an appropriate data visualisation according to the data type (e.g. a dot plot, bar graph, time-series graph) - Noticing an…
- Measurement — Knowledge: - Reading, interpreting, and using timetables and charts that present information about duration
- Number — Practices: - Identifying, reading, writing, and representing fractions, decimals, and percentages - Comparing, ordering, and converting between fractions, decimals, and percentages
📋 Teacher Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Ako — Learning Intentions
Students will engage with this resource to develop statistical investigation skills — planning inquiries, collecting and analysing data, interpreting distributions, and communicating findings. Tūhuratanga (investigation) is framed as a tool for understanding our communities and environment in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Ngā Paearu Angitū — Success Criteria
- ✅ Students can identify an investigative question, collect relevant data, and display it clearly.
- ✅ Students can interpret statistical findings and discuss what they might mean for a real-world community or environmental context.
Differentiation & Inclusion
Scaffold support: Provide structured investigation frameworks (PPDAC cycle templates) for entry-level access. Offer partially completed data tables for students who need additional support. Extend capable learners by asking them to critique a statistical claim from a news article, or to design their own community data investigation.
ELL / ESOL: Pre-teach statistical vocabulary (median, mode, range, distribution, sample, population). Pair visual representations (graphs, tables) with plain-language explanations. Allow students to discuss statistical ideas orally before writing. Encourage use of home language for initial sensemaking.
Inclusion: Statistical investigation offers natural differentiation — all students can engage with the same real-world question at different levels of mathematical complexity. Neurodiverse learners benefit from structured, step-by-step investigation processes. Use collaborative group investigation formats that distribute roles (data collector, recorder, analyst, presenter).
Mātauranga Māori lens: Tūhuratanga — the practice of careful investigation — resonates deeply with mātauranga Māori. The maramataka is a sophisticated data system: tracking environmental patterns, seasonal cycles, and ecological indicators over generations. Iwi environmental monitoring — counting kaimoana populations, tracking water quality, observing bird migrations — is applied statistical thinking. Framing statistics within community and environmental inquiry connects data to mana whenua responsibilities.
Prior knowledge: Students should have basic familiarity with data displays (bar graphs, dot plots). No prior statistical investigation experience required — the PPDAC inquiry cycle provides accessible scaffolding for first-time investigators.
Curriculum alignment
- Statistics — Statistical Investigation: Plan and conduct investigations using the statistical enquiry cycle — determining appropriate variables and data collection methods; gathering, sorting, and displaying multivariate category, measurement, and time-series data to detect patterns, variations, relationships, and trends; comparing distributions visually; communicating findings, using appropriate display.
- Statistics — Probability: Investigate situations that involve elements of chance by comparing experimental distributions with expectations from models of the possible outcomes, acknowledging uncertainty.