Collecting and Comparing

Natural data gatherers

Long before numbers and graphs, children are natural data gatherers. They notice that more friends like chocolate than vanilla, that most days are sunny, that the red blocks are running out. This unit gives shape to that noticing. It begins with a question — one we can answer by gathering things and looking — and walks through the three steps that turn a question into an answer: collect, sort, and compare.

Start with a good question

It starts with a good question. Not every question works; “what is the best colour?” has no single answer, but “what is our class’s favourite pet?” can be answered by asking everyone. At Foundation the questions are always about familiar things — pets, fruit, how we get to school — so the child cares about the answer and already understands the choices.

Collect: ask, and keep track

Then we collect. To find out, we ask, and we keep track of each answer — a mark, a counter, a sticker for every person. This is data: a record of what we found, gathered one answer at a time. The key idea for a young child is that data is not a guess. We do not decide what the class likes; we ask, and we let the answers tell us.

Sort: same answers together

A pile of marks is hard to read, so next we sort. Sorting means putting the same answers together — all the “dog” answers in one group, all the “cat” answers in another. Once the data is sorted into groups, its shape starts to show. Sorting is the bridge between a messy collection and a clear picture, and it is the same sorting skill children meet with shapes and objects, now used on answers.

Compare: let the lengths do the work

Finally we compare, and this is where a graph earns its keep. When we line the groups up — one picture for each answer, in neat rows or columns — the groups can be measured against each other at a glance. The longest row is the most popular; the shortest is the least. A child does not need to count every mark to see which is biggest; the lengths do the comparing for them. That is the quiet power of a picture graph.

Reading the graph is the reward

Reading the graph is the reward, because it answers the question we started with. “Which pet is most common?” — the tallest bar tells us. “Which is least?” — the shortest. Children also begin to notice more: that two groups can be the same, or that one is much bigger than the rest. Turning a tower of answers back into words about the real world — most children walk to school — is the whole point of gathering the data.

Collect, sort, compare

None of this needs a worksheet to begin. Sorting the washing by colour, counting how many of each fruit are in the bowl, or lining up shoes to see whose is longest all build the same sense. The five visualisations below let a child walk the whole path on the screen: collect answers by asking, sort a mixed pile, build a picture graph, compare the groups, and read a class survey. Each one returns to the same idea — collect, sort, compare, and let the data answer.