Begin working on your morning article silently. If you finish early, you may read a book from the bookshelf.

Agenda: Homework sheet and flash cards due Friday. Warm Up What information is this graph giving? What information is missing from this graph? Graphs tell stories through data. What story is this graph telling?

Misleading Graphs Many different groups and companies are constantly trying to sell you their ideas, and some of them use graphs in sneaky ways to try to convince you that they’re correct. Fox News used this graph to make it seem like Sarah Palin was going to win the Republican vote in 2012. What’s wrong here? The percentages total more than 100, so it’s impossible to know what these statistics actually mean.

Misleading Graphs This graph shows the results of a survey indicating which political parties agreed more with a decision made in a court case. It looks like democrats agreed WAY more, but what’s the problem? The y-axis scale is inappropriate. The parties were only 8 percentage points different, but the graph looks more like 80%.

Misleading Graphs This graph shows the difference between Lanacane and hydrocortisone for itch relief. What is it really telling you? This graph gives literally NO useful information. It was used in an ad for Lanacane, but it doesn’t specify the y-axis scale OR tell you what data is being displayed. Is it talking about the percentage of people who preferred each product? Is it displaying levels of itch relief after 1 minute and 60 minutes? We don’t know.

Notebook Title: Graphing Practice Graphing is important to scientists so we know how to represent our data. If you don’t understand the basics of graphing, it’s easy for people to fool you! What?!

Pie Graphs Dependent variable is NOT continuous Usually presents data as a “part of a whole” or as percentages

Bar Graphs Dependent variable is NOT continuous There is no order to the categories on the X-axis Bars typically don’t touch Y-axis is usually a percentage or a frequency (count)

Histograms A specific type of bar graph Independent variable must have a natural order that can be grouped into defined “chunks” Bars must always touch Y-axis is usually a percentage or a frequency (count)

Line Graphs Dependent variable IS continuous Points are plotted using x- and y- components The points are connected because the observations are NOT independent (the next value depends on the previous value)

Scatter Plots Dependent variable IS continuous Points are plotted using x- and y-components The points are NOT connected because the observations are independent (the next value does NOT depend on the previous value) Uses a best-fit line or curve to show relationship

Which would you use? Pie Graph Bar Graph Histogram Line Graph A graph showing the number of 7th graders who prefer Coke or Pepsi A graph showing how a newborn baby’s weight changes over time A graph showing the distribution of trees of different size groups (e.g. 0-10cm, 10- 20cm, etc…) in a forest A graph showing the relationship between height and arm length A graph showing the percentage of an allowance spent on different categories (e.g. food, movies, etc) A graph showing the amount of rainfall, by month over a 12 month period A graph showing the number of ice cream cones purchased as a function of the day’s temperature Pie Graph Bar Graph Histogram Line Graph Scatter Plot Bonus: Which variable is independent in each example?

Independent vs. Dependent Variables The independent variable is the one being manipulated The dependent variable responds to changes in the independent variable Units on any variables should be included in parentheses ( ) following the axis title Leave this up as a reminder while students complete pages 2-3 of their practice sheet.

Complete your graphing practice. When you finish, you may go back to your flash cards and color your pictures.

Exit Ticket Month Rainfall (inches) January 2.5 February 2 March 3 April 4.5 May 5 June 3.5 July August Use the given data to make an appropriate graph about the amount of rainfall Charlotte has had so far in 2014.