Are you constantly looking for interesting, fun, and relevant ways to practice graph analysis and other science skills? Typically, we have students graph lab data or analyze charts from the textbook or lab manual. Although these strategies are solid ways to practice graph analysis or production, both are missing the “fun factor.” Also, textbooks and lab manuals tend to have “cookie cutter”, predictable lab data – great to build foundation, but boring for eager students looking for relevant, real-world examples. So, what can we do to help students practice graph analysis in a relevant and fun way?

The answer is simple: find relevant, fun science data for students to practice graph analysis. Yet, this is oddly difficult to execute because finding relevant, fun science graphs can be difficult. I should know. I spend a lot of time searching only to come up empty. Luckily, I (finally) found FiveThirtyEight.com, a website that features some fun relationships for students to analyse if you can find them.

In a previous post (#23), we summarize how to analyse a graph and provide a cheat sheet. Below, we talk briefly about FiveThirtyEight.com and provide a few of their best graphs that students may find interesting to analyse. At the end of this post, you can sign up to download a handout that contains all the graphs in this article.

A Place Where Pop Culture is Plotted

According to Wikipedia, FiveThirtyEight is “a website that focuses on opinion poll analyses, politics, economics, and sports blogging.” What goes unmentioned in Wikipedia’s description is how FiveThirtyEight authors occasionally use serious statistical analysis to find relationships between variables. Thus, FiveThirtyEight serves also as a model of how we can use science skills to draw conclusions about pop culture. Although pop culture doesn’t fall into the content of typical science curricula, we use pop culture here not for its content but for its ability to engage students in applying science skills to fun and relevant ways.

Here are some graphs (most from FiveThirtyEight) based on pop culture that would be fun and relevant to analyse in the science classroom:

Smart Matt Damon is Hot Matt Damon

Published on FiveThirtyEight

Sample Analysis Questions:

1. In the 3 movies where Matt Damon is the highest dreaminess rating, what were his corresponding smartness ratings?
2. What were Matt Damon’s roles in the 3 movies where he is considered most dreamy?
3. In the 3 movies where Matt Damon has the lower smartness ratings, what were his corresponding dreaminess ratings?
4. What were Matt Damon’s roles in the 3 movies where he is considered least dreamy?
5. Using the CER format, what can you conclude about Matt Damon’s movie roles and his dreaminess?

Old Olympians Ride Horses; Young Ones do Flips

Published on FiveThirtyEight

Sample Analysis Questions:

1. What is the most common age for female Olympic gymnasts?
2. What is the most common age for female Olympic equestrians?
3. How many male Olympic gymnasts are 18 years of age?
4. For what ages for male Olympic equestrians are there at least 6 participants with that same age? What age would those be?
5. Using the CER format, what can you conclude about Olympian age and sports?

Every Color of Every Lightsaber in ‘Star Wars,’ In One Chart

Published on FiveThirtyEight

Sample Analysis Questions:

1. What percentage of lightsabers in star wars are red?
2. What percentage of lightsabers in star wars are green?
3. How many times more red lightsabers are there compared to blue lightsabers?
4. Assuming a star wars movie has 120 lightsaber battles, approximately how many lightsabers in the battle would be red, blue, and green.
5. What is the least popular lightsaber colour? What percentage of lightsabers does the least favourite colour represent?

Chess’s New Best Player Is A Fearless, Swashbuckling Algorithm

Published on FiveThirtyEight

Sample Analysis Questions:

1. What year did computer elo scores finally exceed 2000?
2. What were computer elo scores in 1990?
3. What year did computer elo scores match the best all-time human elo score?
4. What is the range of computer elo scores from 1995 to 2005?
5. Using the CER format, what can you conclude about the trend in computer elo scores?

Comparing Apples and Oranges: Normalizing Competitive Eating Records across Food Disciplines

Published by Mike Woolridge

Sample Analysis Questions:

1. Which foods did competitors consume at least 5 kg of during competition?
2. Which foods had a consumption rate of approximately 0.2 kg/min?
3. Which food had the greatest total weight consumed during competition? Which food had the least?
4. Which food had the quickest rate of consumption during competition? Which food had the least?
5. Using the CER format, what can you conclude about the foods that had the greatest rate of consumption during food competitions?

Wrap up

To help science students practice graph analysis, fun and relevant graphs are helpful. The graphs above are fun, even though some may question how relevant to science content they are. We are constantly trying to find fun, relevant graphs for student practice. So, if you have any suggestions, please let us know. If you would like to download the handouts to this blog post, please click the link below.

Until next time, keep it REAL!

Resources

Handout(s): 24 – Fun Graph Analysis Practice

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