Grade 4 · Unit 9: Data representation and interpretation

Collecting data

Plan, collect and organise.

Seedlings growing in pots, ready to be measured.

A science investigation

Does sunlight help bean plants grow taller? An investigation collects data to answer this. Planning makes the data reliable.

Discrete or continuous?

Discrete data is counted: whole numbers. Continuous data is measured: it can be any value. This changes which graph we use.

Grouping data

When data has many values, make grouped data. Groups must not overlap. Every value must fit in a group.

Planning

Decide exactly what to measure. Choose a fair and big enough sample. Design a table before collecting.

Using a database

A database stores data in rows and columns. We can sort it (tallest first) or search it (who walks?). Sort data into categories that answer your question, and use tree, Venn or Carroll diagrams for subsets.

What I learnt