Long Alive Stalk Too Leaf

I planned to write a postal service close pedagogy stalk together with foliage diagrams. But so I realised that many maths teachers reckon them to survive pointless, a waste materials of pedagogy fourth dimension together with a welcome removal from the curriculum.

Now let’s cry upwards close this for a minute. Admittedly stalk together with foliage diagrams are rarely used inwards ‘real life’. In fact the exclusively mutual examples nosotros tin abide by are timetables, such every bit the Japanese develop timetable shown inwards the moving painting below (more examples here). But does this ‘uselessness’ actually hateful that stalk together with foliage diagrams shouldn’t survive taught? If that’s the illustration so a release of the topics nosotros learn inwards maths should survive taken off the curriculum. 

Japanese develop timetable. Source: Wikipedia

Much of the maths nosotros learn at Key Stage three helps pupils access to a greater extent than advanced topics (all roads Pb to calculus?!). Maths begets maths. So exercise stalk together with foliage diagrams Pb us anywhere? Do they assist pupils develop whatever useful skills together with understanding?

I'm going to tell (in a sheepish whisper) that they do. Stem together with foliage diagrams are 1 of a prepare of tools that could survive used to develop agreement of the concepts of median, mode, quartiles, spread, skew together with outliers. I cry upwards they are accessible to depression powerfulness pupils. I cry upwards that pupils bask creating them. I cry upwards they Pb to interesting discussions when comparing ii sets of data. I sure enough don't cry upwards they should survive a compulsory theme at whatever age, but I run into no terms inwards teachers using them if they like. Isn't it prissy to conduct maintain that freedom?

John Tukey, the inventor of stalk together with foliage diagrams, wrote "If nosotros are going to brand a mark, it may every bit good survive a meaningful one. The simplest - together with most useful - meaningful grade is a digit" (source). Excellent indicate Mr Tukey. Did you lot know he also invented the box together with whisker plot?

John Tukey is also quoted every bit saying "There is no information that tin survive displayed inwards a pie chart, that cannot survive displayed improve inwards another type of chart". I agree. In the same agency many of you lot don't similar stalk together with foliage diagrams, I don't similar pie charts (this excellent spider web log postal service close the misuse of pie charts is worth a read).

Right, straight off I've attempted to justify this spider web log post, here's my lesson ideas:

Starting Point
You could commencement past times presenting your shape amongst a large prepare of information (like the 1 below) together with cry for them what the trend is. It's hard to spot. Ask your pupils for ideas on how could nosotros organise this information so nosotros tin easily run into the mode.

12, 54, 21, 56, 32, 14, 42, 23, 20, 48, 21, 34, 12, 15, 16, 42, 47, 46, 32, 21, 45, 43, 21, 34, 26, 32, 17, 18, 45, 21, 44, 32, 12, 23, 45, 24, 35, 38, 28, 18, 29, 20, 10, 36, 12, 42, 47, 32, 47, 37, 12, 54, 23, 17, 29, 38, 32, 12, 17, 13, 21, 34, 12, 15, 16, 42, 47, 46, 12, 16, 43, 23, 16, 46, 52

I abide by stalk together with foliage plots rather pleasing to the eye. Much nicer to hold off at than a dull listing of unordered data.

An option starting indicate is a 'beat the teacher' game, which I've adapted from an thought past times the NCETM. In this activity, pupils cry upwards of a release betwixt 10 together with 40. Each release is called out inwards turn, spell pupils brand a listing inwards their books. Meanwhile the instructor also makes their ain list, but organises it every bit a stalk together with foliage diagram. Once all the numbers are listed, the instructor asks the shape to run out median, trend together with range. The instructor volition exercise it much quicker from their stalk together with foliage diagram, thus he/she wins the race.

Physical Activities
This spider web log post is close introducing stalk together with foliage diagrams using post-it notes. It's a lovely thought for an engaging together with accessible lesson. Mr Collins shared a similar thought inwards this spider web log post, but he uses students together with desks instead of post-its. If you lot similar the thought of human stalk together with foliage diagrams so you lot powerfulness also similar these breath-holding activities - 1 from Don Steward together with a similar 1 from the NCETM.

Data Types
Encourage pupils to cry upwards close dissimilar types of information - what is suitable for a stalk together with foliage diagram together with what isn't? For example, could the full release of goals scored per game inwards a flavor of football game matches survive displayed inwards a stalk together with foliage diagram? Probably not, because the information would by together with large survive unmarried digit numbers. Try my worksheet for to a greater extent than on this.

Mini Projects
Don Steward has around prissy activities involving stalk together with foliage diagrams, such every bit this this Presidents Longevity Project. I also similar Tim Jefferson's skewness).

Back-to-back stalk together with foliage diagrams are useful for comparing data. Writing comparisons betwixt information sets - whether represented past times stalk together with foliage diagrams or box together with whisker plots - is something that pupils (especially EAL pupils) ofttimes abide by difficult.

There's lots of S1 (A level) stalk together with foliage questions - similar the 1 below - that could survive explored at Key Stage three (which begs the question, why were they considered suitably challenging for H5N1 level?).

Edexcel S1 Nov 2004, Question 1

I rarely disagree amongst people or play devil's advocate so this postal service is a chip risky for me! Be nice. If you lot exercise learn stalk together with foliage diagrams so I promise you lot abide by these ideas helpful. Thanks to those on twitter who shared their views together with ideas (especially @srcav - who is non a fan of stalk together with foliage diagrams!).