Max Maths, Year 6, Try it, Mode, range, median and mean

In a Year 6 mathematics exercise from Max Maths, students are encouraged to explore the concepts of range, mode, median, and mean using the scores of 11 friends from a spelling test. The scores, which are out of 10 marks, are presented in a table for learners labelled A to K, with each learner achieving a score between 4 and 10. To calculate the range, students must identify the difference between the highest and lowest scores. The mode is determined by the score that appears most frequently among the students' results. For the median, students need to arrange all the scores in ascending order and then find the middle value. Lastly, to calculate the mean score, students are instructed to add all the scores together and then divide the total by the number of values, which in this case is 11. The exercise provides a practical application of these statistical measures, reinforcing the students' understanding of how to summarise and interpret data sets.

The activity continues by guiding students to fill in the blanks with the correct values for each statistical measure. For the range, they subtract the lowest score from the highest. The mode is the number that appears most often in the list of scores. The median requires students to list the scores in increasing order and then find the central number. To find the mean, they sum all the scores and divide by the total number of scores. This hands-on approach helps students grasp the different ways of analysing data and understanding the central tendency of a data set. The workbook pages 105 to 106 provide further practice for students to hone their skills in calculating the mode, range, median, and mean of different data sets.