Making Graphs – Topic
3
Material to Supplement MTH 110: Prealgebra Online
In
this lesson we will learn to make graphs. We
will look at making them “by hand” and then you will go to a website that
will make graphs for you. Some of
you may already know how to make graphs using Excel.
We will not learn that skill in this course but if you use graphs in
presentations or papers it is a useful skill to have.
This
topic has been organized by type of graph.
In some cases you will be returning to the same website to find specific
information. Before we begin to look at how to make each type of graph, let’s
look at some overall things we should keep in mind when making graphs.
Activity 1:
Visit http://www.ideabook.com/chart.htm
for to learn about the steps in preparing a graph and some of the
“non-mathematical” things to thing about.
Making Pie Charts
In order to
make pie charts you need to know how to find the number of degrees needed for a
sector and how to measure those degrees.
Activity
2:
For this next site you will need to cut the URL and paste it into the address
space on your web browser. Otherwise
you may get a virus caution. Go to
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/math/prealg/mathnet/pr01/pdf/1102a.pdf
for an explanation on how to find the number of degrees needed for a sector.
Note: It is a pdf file so you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader
if you don’t already have it – it is free.
To download go to http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
. Click
here for the answers to worksheet you will find at this site.
Activity 3:
Go to http://cstl.syr.edu/fipse/TabBar/BldCirc/BUILDCIR.HTM
for a detailed “how to” for making circle graphs. Then go to http://cstl.syr.edu/fipse/TabBar/BldCirc/PRAC7Q.HTM
and make the graph. Check you work
against the solution – you will need to click on “solution to practice” to
find possible solutions.
Making Bar Graphs
Activity 4:
Go to http://cstl.syr.edu/fipse/TabBar/BuildBar/BUILDBAR.HTM
for a detailed “how to” for making bar graphs.
Then go to http://cstl.syr.edu/fipse/TabBar/BuildBar/PRAC11Q.HTM
for data to make a bar graph. Click
on “solution to practice” at bottom of page to see how you did.
Then go to http://cstl.syr.edu/fipse/TabBar/BuildBar/Prac12q.htm
to make another one. Again, click
on “solution to practice” at bottom of page to check your work.
Making Pictographs
Activity
5:
Visit http://webinstituteforteachers.org/2000/teams/whales/datamath1.htm
and towards the bottom of the site you will find information on
pictographs. If you go back to the top and click on pictograph
you will go to an example.
Making Line Graphs
Activity 6:
Go to http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/courses/ci330ms/youtsey/lineinfo.html
and read about how to make line graphs. The
answers to the questions are included on the page.
You need to click on the word “Answers” above the first graph.
Actually Making Graphs
on the Web
Activity 7:
Visit http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/graphing/
and make several graphs. I really
like these graphs. You may ask
yourself why you would ever bother making any graphs by hand when you can use
either this site or Excel to make them. The
answer is that you hardly ever would -
I don’t think I would every make pie charts by hand.
(This assumes you can figure out how to get the graph from the software
to e-mail a document.) However,
there is some basic understanding that needs to exists in your mind to help you
make sense of what the software does for you.
You now have that basic understanding. J
Click
here to go to Topic 4.