On Thursday in Mrs. Mize class, students brought packages of Oreos for an ultimate Oreo stacking contest.

The students had three attempts each to see how many Oreos they could stack before their tower fell. They recorded their results individually and on a class-shared spreadsheet. On Friday in class, the students headed over to the computer lab to use their data findings with the aid of technology to draw conclusions on their experiment. With the help of Ms. Cameron, the students learned how to digitally record their data, use functions such as auto sum and sort in order to find the mean, median, mode, and range of the data. To tie it all together, the students watched as a chart graphically displayed their results as they typed the numbers in to give a visual of the data findings.

“The students were able to see how much technology can aid experiments by instantly calculating the mean, median, mode, and mean, and also how quickly a program like Microsoft Excel can sort data. The visual provided through the chart gave a tangible meaning to experiment and the story the data had to tell,” said Mrs. Mize. “This was a very practical and fun way to learn about the mean, median, mean, and mode, and how statistics play a part in our everyday lives.”