Mathematics

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50 mins

Teacher/Student led

Learning Goals

Learning Outcomes

Lesson Files

+80 XP

Teacher-led from the board. Pupils do not need a device, but can follow on one.

What you need:
IWB/Projector/Large Screen
Multilink cubes

The Mean as a Measure of Centre

Learn to find the mean of a set of values by sharing them equally. Use cube towers to picture the mean as levelling, then practise with adding and dividing.

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1 Getting Started
2 Watch and Notice
3 Try It Together
4 Work the Mean in Your Copy
5 Class Challenge
6 What Did We Notice?
7 What's Next
Pupil practice

Your turn

Your teacher is running this lesson on the board. Here is the part you can try yourself.

Your written work is on page 97

Manipulative task

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

Five towers of purple cubes in a row on a desk, all different heights.

Key point

Here are five towers of cubes, and they are all different heights. Imagine we knocked them down and shared every cube out equally, so all five towers became the same height. Roughly how tall would each one be? Have a guess before we work it out.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Watch and Notice ~9 mins

Each bar chart shows a set of cube towers: each bar is one tower, and its height is the number of cubes in it. If we shared all the cubes out equally, every tower would end up the same height. That height is the mean. On the first chart the dashed line shows it. For the next two, predict the height in your head before we work it out by adding and dividing.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Try It Together ~11 mins

Key point

At your tables, level a fresh set of cube towers so they are all the same height, then check your answer against adding-and-dividing. Today's set is 5, 7, 3, 9 cubes. Level them together, count how many cubes are in each equal tower, then work out (5 + 7 + 3 + 9) ÷ 4 to see if it matches.

Hands-on Task

+15 XP

4 - Work the Mean in Your Copy ~2 mins

COPYBOOK MOMENT

In your maths copy, write out the lesson's data set. Show the total, then divide by the number of values, and underline the mean.

+10 XP

Pupil practice

Module 9 · Data and Chance Data & Chance

Lesson 105 · The Mean as a Measure of Centre

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