Hello all, thanks for stopping by to read this new post about our latest math project.
We recently finished a math/science project titled Correlation vs Causation. This project (as you may have guessed) is about correlation and Causation, specifically in graphs and surveys. In this project, we focused on learning about surveys, how they work and how to make them ethical.
The first thing we did to start off this project (in milestone 1) was making a project start mind map as we usually do. I put all the things I knew about surveys and any questions I had about the project and what it might contain.
At the end of the project we added on our mind maps with some answer to the questions we had at the start:
We than started practicing making and executing surveys for a while and in milestones 2 and 3.
Milestone 2 was a practice survey in class. We surveyed our classmates, and compared height to hand size. Milestone 3 was the first plan for our survey. We drafted what we wanted our questions to be and what we wanted to record in our graphs.
Driving question
The driving question in this project was important in this project but maybe not as pronounced as some of the other projects we’ve done. The question os “how are correlation and causation different”
Causation is when A causes B and visa versa. U can also be when factor C causes both A and B. Correlation is when there is a relationship between A and B but there doesn’t necessarily need to be causation.
The actual survey
We made two actual surveys. One of them consisted of some questions about screen time, sleep time and if they socialized with people on their devices.
The other survey had questions about screen time, if they connect with people on social media and how many social media apps they have.
Screen time vs Sleep time survey
Curricular competencies
Planning and conduction: Select and use appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect data.
We found at least three correlations using our survey results. We displayed the data we got from the surveys to the class in a keynote presentation. I learned a lot about using graphs in numbers and got more confident using keynote.
Communicating and representing: Use mathematical vocabulary and language to contribute to mathematical discussions.
As I said, we made our presentation in keynote. We used used a lot of pictures and visual aids to show our data to the class. We showed our to surveys and explained why we chose the questions. We showed our correlations and one that had causation as well as correlation.
Applying and innovating: contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through individual or collaborative approaches.
We used good ethics when creating our surveys and the questions. I didn’t do as well with using my class tinge however. I struggled to stay on task and could’ve improved on my attention during work blocks. I did learn a lot about balancing work amongst group members though.
Conclusion
So our correlations were not incredibly strong, but we were able to identify correlations
and some causations in our graphs. We also found this project fun and it expanded our brain cells. I enjoyed working with my partners and had a good time in this project
Thanks for reading! -Declan