Let’s Learn!
How can I draw a line graph to represent data?
Goal:
Goal:
Think About It!
Goal: Collect and display data on a line graph.
The construction projects will take place over the summer, and the students are helping to track the amount of work completed as well as the temperature on the days the crews are working. Different crews will be working on different days, so the students need to track the temperature for every day of the week. To help the students display this information, they will use a line graph!
A line graph is a graph that organizes and compares how data changes over time.
Data is information collected by asking questions or observing how often something occurs.
Our first graph will track the temperature over 7 days.
This image shows the temperature on each day of the week. Remember, when reading a thermometer, we look at the top of the red to find the temperature.
Click the image to read the thermometers.
We can make a table of the temperature each day. Click the button below to find out!
Row 1: Sunday 80 Degrees, Row 2: Monday 82 Degrees,
Tuesday 84 Degrees, Wednesday 85 degrees, Thursday 80
degrees, Friday 76 Degrees, Saturday 78 Degrees.
Let's make a graph to show the change in temperature!
Click through the slides below to see how to draw a line graph to answer some questions based on the data that has been collected. Use a piece of blank paper or the Blank Graph Worksheet to create your graph as you go along with these steps.
Step 1: Draw your basic shape and label it.
First, we need to know what the graph is displaying. The title and labels help to tell you this.
What labels should we add to this graph?
temperature over one week, days, and temperature (in ˚F)
What do those labels help you know about what is being displayed?
The information being displayed is the temperature over one week in degrees Farenheit!
Let's add the title!
Step 2: Place labels on the horizontal axis and vertical axis.
When we add labels to the horizontal axis, or bottom side, we MUST use data that is in units of time. Days, hours, months, minutes, seconds….
Which units of time will we use?
days of the week
Let's add those labels!
Now we add the labels for the vertical axis, or left side. This data is ALWAYS numbers. It can be units of length, weight, money, or temperature.
When adding the labels, you should identify what the unit is in parentheses.
For example: Cost (in dollars)
What unit does our data use?
degrees Fahrenheit (˚F)
Let's add those labels!
Notice how the numbers do not start at 0. This is because the lowest number in the data table is 76 ˚F and the highest is 85˚F. We round down and round up to give a little extra space for our graph. We also will skip-count by twos. This is so that we do not have to write every number in the range
Step 3: Plot your data.
Now that we have our graph labeled, we need to add points to represent each value.
Let’s go to the first day, Sunday. Move up the graph to the temperature on Sunday, 80˚F, and make a dot.
Let’s do this for the rest of the data points.
Row 1: Sunday 80 Degrees, Row 2: Monday 82 Degrees,
Tuesday 84 Degrees, Wednesday 85 degrees, Thursday 80
degrees, Friday 76 Degrees, Saturday 78 Degrees.
Plot your points on your graph and Click the button below to check your work.
Your graph should like this:
Step 4: Draw your line.
The last step is to connect your points to create the final graph. Starting at the first point, draw a line to connect that point to the second point, then connect the second to the third and so on.
It is best to use a ruler or straightedge to connect your dots so that you have a clean, straight line!
Now we have line graph showing the change in temperature over one week.
Now that we have collected the data in the line graph, let's answer some questions about the line graph.
Which day had the HIGHEST temperature?
- Wednesday
- Monday
- Friday
- Saturday
Correct! Wednesday had the highest temperature.
Look for the highest dot. Which month is under it?
Look for the highest dot. Which month is under it?
Look for the highest dot. Which month is under it?
Which day had the LOWEST temperature?
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Friday
- Saturday
Look for the lowest dot. Which month is under it?
Look for the lowest dot. Which month is under it?
Correct! Friday had the lowest temperature.
Look for the lowest dot. Which month is under it?
Summary
Questions answered correctly:
Questions answered incorrectly:
We can use line graphs to track changes in data over time. Let’s see what other information we can track using line graphs.