Marta Tienda - Story by Numbers

	www.iwaswondering.org © 2005 National Academy of Sciences
PRINT THE STORY BY NUMBERS SURVEY AND THE STORY BY NUMBERS DATA SHEET TOO! You also need to print the Story by Numbers Survey and the Story by Numbers Data Sheet for a full set of Science Lab instructions.

Sociologist Marta Tienda knows that numbers can be used for more than counting—you can actually tell a story with them. Marta studies people and groups by looking at numbers in the same way a detective looks at clues. She studies the data gathered in surveys and tables to find out how one part of a person's life, such as education, relates to another part, such as how much money they earn.

In this activity you'll first see how numbers can be interpreted through graphs and charts. Then it will be your turn to tell a story with numbers. You'll start by surveying your friends and classmates to find out how many hours of TV they watch, and what their math and English grades are. Then you'll look at the data you collected to see what story your numbers tell.


	Pen or pencil Marta's Data Interpretation Story by Numbers Survey Story by Numbers Data Sheet Story by Numbers Journal Fellow scientists, friends, or classmates to survey

1. Print this activity.

Print this page, Marta's Data Interpretation, the Story by Numbers Survey, the Story by Numbers Data Sheet, and the Story by Numbers Journal.

2. Take a survey.

Use the Story by Numbers Survey to interview 10 friends about how much television they watch and their school grades. The survey will be anonymous, so let your friends know that you won't be sharing their information with anyone, and that you don't need them to write their names on the surveys.

3. Create a table.

After you have collected your surveys, you can use the data to create a table. Fill in the information you collected in your surveys on the Story by Numbers Data Sheet.

4. Tell a story.

Arrange your data into a graph or a chart to help you tell your story. Here are some ideas for graphs that you might create from your data. What stories do they tell? Write down your thoughts in your Story by Numbers Journal.

This data table, developed by Marta, shows some numbers related to students from different high schools in one county in Texas. By studying the numbers and arranging the data in different ways, Marta can see the story that these numbers tell about the county's students and their plans for college.

Number of Students and Percentage College Plans

Marta can use a line graph to determine a relationship between the percentage of students who passed algebra and the percentage of students with college plans. As a general pattern, the higher the percentage of students who passed algebra, the higher the percentage with college plans. Some of the schools do not fit the pattern. Look at the two points at the beginning of the of the graph at left. In both of high schools #3 and #9, none of the students passed algebra, but high school #3 has a higher percentage of students with college plans than several other high schools with higher passing percentages. High school #5 and high school #10 have lower percentages of students with college plans than several other schools.


	This multiple bar graph can be used to compare the percentage of students who passed algebra to the percentage of twelfth graders who had ever been economically disadvantaged. High school #10 has the highest percentage of students who passed algebra and the lowest percentage of students who had ever been economically disadvantaged. High school #9 has the highest percentage of disadvantaged students and none of these students passed algebra. Notice that when the orange bars tend to be high, the pink bars tend to be low. Do you see any schools where this trend is not as dramatic as the other schools?

When a scientist has finished her fieldwork, she always writes up her notes and analyzes her data. Write your analysis here, starting with a few simple questions.

What stories do your graphs tell? Who got the best grades?

How many hours of television did the person watch?

Do you think there is a relationship between TV viewing and school grades? What makes you think that?

Did the number of hours of TV watched affect both math and English grades for the people you surveyed? Only math? Only English? Or neither?

What graph or chart style worked best to tell your number story? Why?

Were you surprised by the story that your numbers told?

What other questions would you like to investigate using surveys and graphs? Create a new survey. Then collect new data and see what story it tells.