Statistics: Age 11-14

This is part of our collection of favourite rich tasks arranged by topic.

If you are a teacher, you can find the whole collection on our Secondary Curriculum teacher page.
Alternatively, if you are a student, you'll find the same problems on our Secondary Curriculum student page.


  • Substitution Cipher
    problem
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    Substitution Cipher

    Age
    11 to 14
    Challenge level
    1 out of 3

    Find the frequency distribution for ordinary English, and use it to help you crack the code.

  • problem
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    In the Bag

    Age
    11 to 14
    Challenge level
    1 out of 3

    Can you guess the colours of the 10 marbles in the bag? Can you develop an effective strategy for reaching 1000 points in the least number of rounds?

  • problem
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    Reaction Timer

    Age
    11 to 14
    Challenge level
    1 out of 3

    This problem offers you two ways to test reactions - use them to investigate your ideas about speeds of reaction.

  • m, m and m
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    M, M and M

    Age
    11 to 14
    Challenge level
    1 out of 3

    If you are given the mean, median and mode of five positive whole numbers, can you find the numbers?

  • problem
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    How Would You Score It?

    Age
    11 to 14
    Challenge level
    1 out of 3

    Invent a scoring system for a 'guess the weight' competition.

  • Olympic Records
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    Olympic Records

    Age
    11 to 14
    Challenge level
    1 out of 3

    Can you deduce which Olympic athletics events are represented by the graphs?

  • About Average
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    About Average

    Age
    11 to 14
    Challenge level
    1 out of 3

    Can you find sets of numbers which satisfy each of our mean, median, mode and range conditions?

  • Half a minute
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    Half a Minute

    Age
    11 to 14
    Challenge level
    1 out of 3

    Anna, Ben and Charlie have been estimating 30 seconds. Who is the best?

  • Who's the best?
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    Who's the Best?

    Age
    11 to 14
    Challenge level
    2 out of 3

    Which countries have the most naturally athletic populations?

  • What's the weather like?
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    What's the Weather Like?

    Age
    11 to 14
    Challenge level
    2 out of 3

    With access to weather station data, what interesting questions can you investigate?

  • Hourglass with blue sand.
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    Estimating Time

    Age
    11 to 14
    Challenge level
    2 out of 3

    How well can you estimate 10 seconds? Investigate with our timing tool.

  • Unequal Averages
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    Unequal Averages

    Age
    11 to 14
    Challenge level
    2 out of 3

    Play around with sets of five numbers and see what you can discover about different types of average...

  • Litov's Mean Value Theorem
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    Litov's Mean Value Theorem

    Age
    11 to 14
    Challenge level
    3 out of 3

    Start with two numbers and generate a sequence where the next number is the mean of the last two numbers...

  • Statistical shorts
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    Statistical Shorts

    Age
    11 to 16
    Challenge level
    1 out of 3

    Can you decide whether these short statistical statements are always, sometimes or never true?

  • A blue map of electronic connections between people.
    problem
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    Connecting Averages

    Age
    11 to 16
    Challenge level
    1 out of 3

    The number in the square is the mean of the four numbers surrounding it. Can you find the missing numbers? 

  • Searching for mean(ing)
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    Searching for Mean(ing)

    Age
    11 to 16
    Challenge level
    2 out of 3

    If you have a large supply of 3kg and 8kg weights, how many of each would you need for the average (mean) of the weights to be 6kg?

  • Wipeout
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    Wipeout

    Age
    11 to 16
    Challenge level
    2 out of 3

    Can you do a little mathematical detective work to figure out which number has been wiped out?

  • Tree tops
    problem
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    Tree Tops

    Age
    14 to 16
    Challenge level
    2 out of 3

    Can you make sense of information about trees in order to maximise the profits of a forestry company?