Lesson 2 - Choosing a Scale for a Bar Graph

To encourage students to have fun on the Web while learning about Choosing a Scale for a Bar Graph, here are some games and interactive activities they can do on their own or in pairs.

Goal

Explain how to choose a graph and a scale that are appropriate for the data.

Builds Upon

Student Book pages 62-63

Instructions for Use

Grapher is an interactive activity that lets students choose a scale that is appropriate for the data. First have the students complete a survey to collect data ex., ask friends their favourite snack food, book, or band.

To use Grapher, click on the arrows to create the columns. Click on the numbers to change the scale. Click on the words to change the titles.

Bar Graph lets students choose a scale that is appropriate for the data.

To use Bar Graph, type in the data in the data box and click the 'Graph Data' button. By dragging the 'Bar Width' scrollbar, the user may alter the thickness of the bars. By dragging the vertical scrollbar, the user may adjust the scale of the graph or simply input maximum and minimum values into the text fields, and click the 'Set Min and Max' button. To change the colour of the bars, select the bar colour from a drop-down menu. To clear all the data, click the 'Clear Data' button.