Connecting
with
Basic
Knowledge
Mary Parker &
Colleen Hosking
Austin Community College
What prior
knowledge and experiences
are we assuming our students
have that some of them
don’t have?
Some Example Concepts/Skills
 Constructing
 Interpreting
 Knowing
graphs
graphs
what prerequisite skills
they are lacking
 Concept of “randomness”
 Making sense of how data can
be relevant to real-life questions
Examples of Our Solutions
 Start
with dotplots
 Comparing graphs
 Interactive applets
 Prerequisite Review Sheet
 Scaffolding questions
 Connecting students to statistics
contexts
 Make up data to fit a scenario
Example: Comparing Graphs
Example: Comparing Graphs
The original version of this work was developed by the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of
Texas at Austin under sponsorship of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
This work is used (or adapted) under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) license: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0.
For more information about Carnegie’s work on Statway, see www.carnegiefoundation.org/statway;
for information on the Dana Centers work on The New Mathways Project, see
www.utdanacenter.org/mathways.
Example: Interactive Applets
http://www.austincc.edu/
mparker/talks/uscots2015/
Example: Prerequisite Reality Check
Example: Prerequisite Reality Check
Connections:
Real-life context & interpreting graphs
Connections:
Real-life context & interpreting graphs
(1) Captain Crunch has the lowest Consumer Reports
rating of the 77 cereals in the data set. How much fat
is in a serving of Captain Crunch?
(2) In this set of 77 cereals, Product 19 has the most sodium
in a serving. What is the rating for Product 19?
(3) All-Bran Extra Fiber is the cereal with the highest rating.
How much sugar, fat, and sodium are in a serving of
All-Bran Extra Fiber?
The original version of this work was developed by the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of
Texas at Austin under sponsorship of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
This work is used (or adapted) under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) license: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0.
For more information about Carnegie’s work on Statway, see www.carnegiefoundation.org/statway;
for information on the Dana Centers work on The New Mathways Project, see
www.utdanacenter.org/mathways.
Examples of Our Solutions
 Start
with dotplots
 Comparing graphs
 Interactive applets
 Prerequisite Review Sheet
 Scaffolding questions
 Connecting students to statistics
contexts
 Make up data to fit a scenario
Brainstorm
What are some important
concepts/skills your weaker
students don’t have when
they come to class?
Activity: How will you address this gap?
1.
2.
Choose 1 concept/skill you think is important
Prepare an outline of how you might address
this in your class in such a way that brings
weaker students up to speed. This can be:
A class activity
 A class presentation/brief lecture
 A take-home assignment
 Part of a prerequisite review
 Addition to existing activity/lecture

3.
What are some questions you can use to assess
whether students are making the appropriate
advances/connections?