A Classroom Project: Creating Graphs and Charts
To help your students understand how information is gathered to make graphs and charts, and how the data is used, create some graphs and charts as a classroom project. Tell your students they will need to agree on a topic and compose questionnaires to gather feedback. Themes might include subjects being studied in class or hobbies in which the students like to participate. Writing the questions will give them practice in sentence construction and the expression of clear ideas. The surveys can be given to other classrooms to fill out or sent home to parents. How exciting it will be when the students read the responses generated by their inquiries! The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has links in its website designed to teach students how to make graphs and charts, and how to use them in everyday life. The section, called “Create a Graph,” can be accessed at the Students’ Classroom area at http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/. There are five graphs from which to choose, with completed samples so your students can see what the finished product looks like. Step-by-step instruction is given, including design, data collection, label making, previewing work, and printing and saving. Having your students make graphs and charts as a classroom project allows them to see information visually. Ask them to give you examples of graphs or charts they have come across in newspapers, magazines, or on the Web. Discuss the importance of graphs and charts in helping people understand difficult material. Students can also be taught how to use graphs and charts to enhance a school project. You may wish to offer them extra credit if they use a graph or chart in an assignment.