Estimate Your Reaction Time

Objectives - To review statistical landmarks for sets of data; to estimate reaction times; and to use statistical landmarks to describe experimental data.

Summaries

Materials
1 Teaching the Lesson

Students review how to find the mean of a set of data. They conduct an experiment to estimate the mean time it takes a student to react to having his or her hand squeezed. Students collect individual reaction time data by using a calibrated Grab-It Gauge, find statistical landmarks for the data, and estimate individual reaction times. [Data and Chance; Operations and Computation]
  • Math Journal 1, pp. 39 and 40 

    • and Activity Sheet 3
     
  • Student Reference Book, pp. 113 and 115

    •  
  • Study Link 2.4

    •  
  • calculator     • dictionary (optional)

    •  
  • a timer such as a stopwatch, a digital watch, or a clock

    •  
  • stick-on notes (optional)        • scissors
See Advance Preparation
2 Ongoing Learning & Practice 

Students interpret data displayed in a table. [Data and Chance; Operations and Computation]

Students practice and maintain skills through Math Boxes and Study Link activities.
  • Math Journal 1, pp. 41 and 42

    •  
  • Study Link 2.5 (Math Masters, p. 231)
3 Options for Individualizing

Enrichment - Students make line plots for the reaction times data they have collected. [Data and Chance]

Language Diversity - Students discuss other meanings for the term median. [Data and Chance]

Extra Practice - Students choose a set of data in their Student Reference Books and find the statistical landmarks for the data. [Data and Chance; Operations and Computation]

  • Student Reference Book

    •  
  • Teaching Master (Math Masters, p. 15)
Additional Information

Advance Preparation - For the hand-squeezing experiment in Part 1, you will need a timing device capable of measuring time to the nearest second. Use a stopwatch, a digital watch, or a clock with a sweeping second hand. Construct your own Grab-It Gauge from Math Journal 1, Activity Sheet 3 to use as a model for the students. 

Vocabulary · mean (also called average) · stimulus · reaction time · minimum · maximum · range · mode · median

Vocabulary (teacher) · statistical landmark

Getting Started

Mental Math and Reflexes

Students write numbers from dictation and identify digits in given places. Suggestions:
243,564    Circle the digit in the ten-thousands place; underline the digit in the hundreds place.
1,407,829    Circle the thousands digit; underline the millions digit.
24.67    Circle the tenths digit; underline the ones digit.
518.03    Circle the hundredths digit; underline the hundreds digit.
Math Message

Read page 115 in your Student Reference Book. Then find the mean of the data shown at the bottom of that page. 

Study Link 2.4 Follow-Up
Briefly go over the answers. Ask someone to explain how he or she chose the correct open sentence in Problem 4.

Next | Back to Sample Lessons