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Trick or Treat - A Stats Lesson for Halloween

Updated: Aug 2

East Kentwood High School always has a half day on Halloween. We get to see each of our classes for a mere 28 minutes. Subtract out the first few minutes of class where we spend time admiring the various costumes and we don't have much time (or focus) left for AP Statistics. This year, we decided we needed a new activity for this shortened class period.


Of course we could do a crossword puzzle or some sort of art activity, but we really wanted to sneak in some statistics. We did recently just finish up the unit on Two Variable Data, so we decided we wanted a nice review activity.


A Facebook post in the Stats Medic Teacher Community from AP Stats all-star Randy Blackwood gave us just what we needed. With his permission, we did some tweaking and arrived at the following activity, using this data set.



Activity

Answer Key









Concepts Reviewed in this Activity

  • Use a calculator to construct a scatterplot.

  • Describe the relationship between two quantitative variables.

  • Use a calculator to find the equation of the LSRL.

  • Find and interpret a residual.

  • Create a residual plot

  • Assess the appropriateness of a linear model for a given set of data.


The Grand Reveal

The best part of the activity comes at the end when students create the residual plot for the data set:




If you would prefer the digital route, O'Malley Barton put together an awesome Desmos Activity with a similar reveal.


We hope your students enjoy it!

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