Teaching Activity
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Building forecastsHow do we forecast the future?Grade: 9/10 Stage: 11/12/13 with emphasis on: Maths Concepts: Number, graphing, inference Context: Society Critical Numeracy: De-coding, Meaning-making, Using, Analysing Date of Article: 28/05/09, pg 19 Printer version of article Student Worksheet Student worksheet answers |
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Orienting Questions How do we forecast the future? There is a lot riding on getting forecasts right. Why might it be important to forecast building activity in Australia? What data would you need to collect? |
De-coding and Meaning-making
The student worksheet helps students draw on some of the data to create graphs and do percentage increase and decrease calculations.
Using
The worksheet supplements the data in the article with graphs showing building activity over the last 8 years so students get a sense of how time periods influence the sort of conclusions that you can make from the data. They are asked to consider whether the numbers in the article support the forecasts given.
Classroom discussion on exploring the issues of creating useful forecasts. What do you have to take into account in making a forecast? What do you look for? What data do you need to collect?
Possible Activities: Students create a mind map showing all the factors that they think influence building activity and the various ways that building activity impacts on the local community and national policy. Why is the building industry so important? How can forecasts help us make useful decisions for this industry?
Students could consider debating the issue: Do Australians have a right to own their own home?
Debriefing
What did you learn? How has your thinking on this topic changed? What new maths skills have you developed? What thinking strategies have you found useful?
What investigation would you like to consider now?
Extension Students in groups could consider choosing a topic of personal interest and research data in order to make forecasts about the future. (For example, researching statistics about the rise of particular musical genres, or video games.) They could write a report that recommends strategies based on the evidence they find. www.abs.gov.au |
Useful Statistical definitions
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