GRAPHING DATA S.Carbajal Grade 8

What You’ll Learn Today  Becoming familiar with and easily using graphing.  Different types of graphs: bar, line, pie, area, and scatter plots.  What graph should be used to show what data.  The benefits of graphing.  How to apply graphing to Anthropology.

Introduction  There will be many situations in life, especially in Anthropology, in which you will be presented with data.  When trying to present this data to others, you will find it very useful to make a graph rather than trying to present in text form.  Graphing is the simplest way to present any kind of data.

Familiarizing Yourself with Graphing  The only way to get better at graphing is to keep practicing it.  Try different techniques and presenting data in different way until you find a way that is both easy for you and easy for others to understand.  There are more ways to graph than will be presented in today’s lesson, so don’t be afraid to do more research on your own.

Bar Graphs  Bar graphs are used to compare things between different groups or to track changes over time.  However, when trying to measure change over time, bar graphs are best when the changes are larger.  In bar charts, a class or group can have a single category of data, or they can be broken down further into multiple categories for greater depth of analysis.

Line Graphs  Line graphs are used to track changes over short and long periods of time.  Line graphs are better to use when small changes exist, as opposed to bar graphs, because the differences appear more distinctly on line graphs.  Line graphs can also be used to compare changes over the same period of time for more than one group.  Line graphs are effective when graphing average temperatures of a state, or country by month, for example.

Pie Graph  Pie charts are best to use when you are trying to compare parts of a whole.  Pie charts can not show changes over time.  A Pie Graph could be used, for example, to show the components of your day. (i.e. one-fourth of pie graph dedicated to “sleep”, one- fourth dedicated to “school”, one- fourth dedicated to “watching TV”, and one-fourth dedicated to “hanging out with friends.”

Area Graph  Area graphs are very similar to line graphs.  They too can be used to track changes over time in one or more groups.  However, they differ because they track changes in more two or more groups, that make up one category.  An area graph, for example, could be used to show population growth in the United States, by state.

Scatter Plots  Scatter plots are useful when someone has a lot of data and wants to find the average of that data.  Scatter plots do not show changes over time or parts of a whole, but rather something in comparison to something else.  A scatter plot, for example, could be used to find a height and weight comparison of your class. Once the data is plugged in, you draw a straight line through what you would consider the median of your data. That is know the rough average of the height and weight of your class.

Graphing in Anthropology  Surprisingly, finding data to graph in Anthropology is not difficult at all!  Many of the studies Anthropologists conduct, need to be graphed to show what is learned.  Anthropology is a social science that has a lot of emphasis on comparison, so bar graphs, line graphs, and area graphs are used most of the time.  Anything from the make up of religions in a certain area to gender gaps is graphed.

Class Activity  Materials needed: Paper and coloring utensils  Time needed: <30minutes

Instructions  Step 1: Break students into 5 groups.  Step 2: Assign each group a different graph type.  Step 3: Once graph types are assigned have students work together to come up with something they could ask other students in class and proceed to graph. For example, if one group got bar graphs, they could ask all the students in the class their favorite TV show, and tally up the results.

Instructions (Cont.)  Step 4: Once students have collected data have them plug the data into the graph.  Step 5: Have the groups present what they have learned to their classmates and have them share something they that was interesting or something that surprised them about their data.  Step 6: Ask the class why they thought graphing was useful and why they think Anthropologists utilize it so much.