Working with Data

Here is a quick how to on working with data for a science fair experiment or any project or experiment that involves gathering a lot of data.

The benefits on working with data is that it helps to provide a better picture of what happened during the experiment. Another benefit is that it can make creating data tables and graphs easier.

There are many ways to work with data, but here are the four most common and their definitions. Remember, putting the numbers in order from least to greatest is important to do before working with the data.

 

Mode – The number that appears the most

Range – The difference between the largest number and the smallest number.

Median – The number in the middle of the data set. Remember you need to have an equal amount on each side of the median.

Mean – The average, add up all the numbers and divide by the total number of items. This is probably the most frequently used in working with data.

Here is an interactive that is helpful in reviewing these concepts.