Google Forms for Teaching Statistics
Google Forms offers teachers and students opportunities for authentic, project-based learning. Grade 7 CCSS statistics & probability math standards were targeted. Students demonstrated their ability to summarize and analyze data while contributing valuable information to the community. Students worked in teams to develop questions, analyze data and summarize results for clients. Google Forms & Sheets allowed students to collect and review large data sets.
Client Meeting
Identify clients from the school and local community in need of survey data so that students are invested in the work. For example, one of our topics was a Sleep Survey requested by a middle school Health & Wellness teacher in conjunction with the School Nurse. Other topics / clients included Social Media Habits (Client: Principal/Asst. Principal), Teen Reading & Library Use (Client: ELA Dept Head & Teen Librarian from town) and School Lunch Preferences (Client: Food Service Manager)
NOTE: We had one topic/client per class period. All students in each period worked together on different parts of the same survey throughout the project.
- Invite client to visit class and explain what their topic is and what questions they would like answered while students take notes.
- Have client fill out Client Planning Worksheet in preparation for class visit.
- During client visit, students completed a Student Planning Worksheet to make notes and draft questions.
Develop & Distribute Google Form Survey
- Group students (groups of 4-6) to write potential questions for the survey. Work is done on a shared Google Doc which is submitted via Google Classroom.
- Teacher uses student-generated questions to build a Google Form survey. Since the whole class is working on the same survey, we decided to have the teacher pulls representative questions for the student documents to include in the survey. Click HERE for a related post with tips on formatting questions in Google Forms.
- Distribute survey. Our surveys were designed to be answered by middle school students in our town. Click HERE for a sample survey.
Summarize Survey Data
- Math students are provided with the Google Spreadsheet data and broken up into groups. Each group is assigned a few questions which they create graphs and data tables on paper before moving to Chromebooks to input their information.
- Students locate their assigned questions and input their results in a shared class document. TIP: Create a basic template FIRST with a linked table of contents so kids can easily navigate to their questions.
Pacing Guide
All resources for this lesson and a detailed pacing guide can be found HERE.
Click HERE for Detailed Pacing GuideSpecial thanks to Lynnfield Grade 7 math teachers, Mindy Connelly and Heidi Johnson for their help in creating and implementing this lesson with students!
