Our sports
This problem explores the range of events in a sports day and which ones are the most popular and attract the most entries.
Problem
There are lots of different races and games that happen at the Olympic Games.
Have a think about all the different events that happen at your school sports day.
Is there a race or game that you would like to take part in?
Or
Do you have a favourite race or game that's part of the Olympic Games?
What about the rest of your class, do they have a favourite race or game?
Can you think of a way to show other classes what race or game is liked by the most people in your class?
Could you also think of a way to show what is least popular?
How would you do that?
Student Solutions
This activity was somewhat different to the usual ones and would probably be explored when the class is doing something about data collection. If this happens later in the year still feel free to send in solutions. We had the following from someone who unfortunately left no name or school!
To tell other classes what sport is most liked in our class you could have a vote.Then we could make a graph to show them. For example if half the class voted for the high jump and nobody voted for the $100$ metre sprint, it would be shown on the graph. It could also be shown in a table or a bar chart. In the bar chart it would show diffrent coloured bars for different sports. In a table it would be shown by drawing $1,2,3,4$.
Lance from Concord Elementary School in the US sent in this well constructed and useful pie chart. Well Done!.
This pie chart shows very clearly a lot of information, you might look at this as an incentive for a discussion, thank you Lance.
Teachers' Resources
Our Sports
There are lots of different races and games that will go on in the Olympic Games.
You may be able to remember your school sports day when there were lots of races and games.
Is there a race or game that you would like to be in?
Or
Do you have a favourite race or game that's part of the Olympic Games?
What about the rest of your class, do they have a favourite race or game?
Can you think of a way that would tell other classes what race or game is liked by most of your class?
Could you also think of a way to show what is least popular?
How would you do that?
Another thing that you may be able to do is to show other classes which races or games are most liked by your class.
Why do this problem?
This activity may be used as a good start to discuss about collecting data on a relevant topic. It offers pupils the chance to decide what method of collecting data they might use, and how they would like to display what they find out.
Possible approach
You might choose to begin by asking the children what competitive games they know, and what they know about them. You might choose to show some videos from the frequently updated Olympic website.
Key questions
Tell me what information you want to collect.
Possible extension
Ask the pupils in what ways can they extend their data collection to take into account more information, and how they might display their additional findings.
Possible support
Some pupils may benefit by having pictures of different games and sports to remind them of the key pieces of information about each.