Lesson 3

Discover

 

You have discovered that it is often useful to reduce a set of data to a single representative value, such as the mean (arithmetic or trimmed), median, or mode. As noted in Focus, beef cattle are graded on aspects such as appearance, tenderness, and fat content to give them a grade (A, AA, AAA, or prime beef). Similarly, in a classroom, various assessments may be used to give a student a final mark. Consider the following scenarios:

 

Scenario A

Logan, in Mr. Flynn’s class, has an average mark of 50% on his assignments, 30% on his quizzes, and 80% on his exams. His teacher has given him an overall mark of 59%.

 

How might the teacher have obtained this mark?

 

Scenario B

Chloe, a student in Mrs. Rand’s class, is calculating her average mark and she knows that her assignments have a weight of 20%, quizzes 20%, and exams 60%. Chloe has a mark of 70% for assignments, 80% for quizzes, and 90% for exams. Her overall mark is 84%.

 

How did the teacher obtain this mark?

 

 

Scenario C

Owen, a student in Mr. Grant’s class, is calculating his average mark and he knows that his assignments have a weight of 30%, quizzes 10%, and projects 60%. Owen has a mark of 50% for assignments, 80% for quizzes, and 70% for projects.

 

What is Owen’s overall mark?

 

Share 1

 

With a classmate, discuss the three scenarios and respond to the following questions.

1. Did you and your classmate have similar responses to the scenarios?
2. Did you find that the strategies you used to find the answers were similar or different from your classmate's? 

If required, place a summary of your discussion in your course folder.