Mining Data with USA Today's Snapshots
The Snapshots section of USA Today offers quick pictures of intriguing data collected for a specific question. A variety of subject matter is available online at http://www.usatoday.com/news/snapshot.htm, and the graphics change frequently. To use this month's activities, first visit the site to review the current topics and choose what is best for your class. If you do not have class access to the Internet, just download a couple of data snapshots, print them for examples for your class, and let students start mining. If an appropriate fit is not available, adapt or create your own. The focus of the following generic problems and activities allows students to collect their own data, transform problems, and process data in meaningful ways.
Supplementary Materials
- Supplemental Materials (PDF 351 KB)
Contributor Notes
Edited by Christine D. Poulsen, cpoulsen@placercoe.k12.ca.us, and Kimberly M. Lilienthal, klilienthal@placercoe.k12.ca.us. Poulsen is the Math Grant Coordinator for Placer County Office of Education and a project director for CaMSP Math Grant SUCCESS in Auburn, California. Lilienthal is a project director for CaMSP RIMS and an academic math coach for RIMS for Placer County Office of Education. E-mail problem collections for the editors to consider for future Math by the Month columns. Go to www.nctm.org/tcmdepartments for detailed submission guidelines for all departments. E-mail creative solutions and adapted problems to tcm@nctm.org for potential publication, noting Readers Exchange in the subject line.
