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Year 8

Understanding the median

I can understand what the median is measuring, how it is measuring it and find the median from data presented in a list.

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New

Year 8

Understanding the median

I can understand what the median is measuring, how it is measuring it and find the median from data presented in a list.

Download all resources

Share activities with pupils

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Lesson details

Key learning points

The median is a measure of central tendency.
The median is the middle (or average middle) value in an ordered data set.
The median can be seen as the halfway point of a set of values.

Keywords

Median - the central (middle) piece of data when the data is in numerical order. A measure of central tendency representing the average of the values

Common misconception

Pupils may confuse the position of the median with the median's actual value.

Choose data where the position number would not be a reasonable median value and ensure pupils sense check their answers every time.

Have the pupils line up in height order, then sit them down one by one, until the median is located. Part way through you could ask who is the middle? What position are they in the line? This can help with the misconception as well.

Teacher tip

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Worksheet

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.

Work out: $$ 943 - 528 $$ =

Correct Answer: 415, four hundred and fifteen

Q2.

Starting with the highest number, put the numbers in descending order.

1 - 860

2 - 842

3 - 835

4 - 831

5 - 830

6 - 819

Q3.

is exactly half way between 64 and 86.

Correct Answer: 75, seventy five, seventy-five

Q4.

The mean of 34 and 56 is .

Correct Answer: 45, fofty-five, forty five

Q5.

Starting with the lowest number, put the numbers in ascending order.

1 - 4.092

2 - 4.2

3 - 4.87

4 - 5

5 - 5.16

6 - 5.167

Q6.

A measure of tendency is a summary measure that attempts to describe a whole set of data with a single value that represents the middle or centre of its distribution.

Correct Answer: central

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.

The median is the piece of data when the data are in numerical order. It is a measure of central tendency representing the average of the values.

Correct Answer: central, middle

Q2.

Match the number of data points with the position of the median.

Correct Answer:65 values,33rd position

33rd position

Correct Answer:66 values,33.5th position

33.5th position

Correct Answer:61 values,31st position

31st position

Correct Answer:68 values,34.5th position

34.5th position

Q3.

The median from this list: 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.8, 2.9 is .

Correct Answer: 2.65

Q4.

Which of these data sets can you find the median for?

Correct answer: 3, 7, 2, 8, 1, 9, 3, 5

cat, dog, rabbit, dog, dog, cat, cat, hamster, fish

Correct answer: -2, -5, -2, -7, -3, -6, -7.2

red, orange, yellow, blue, green, yellow, white, black, purple

Q5.

Sam wants to calculate the median of this data set. Is Sam's working correct?

Yes - the middle number has been identified

Correct answer: No - the data has not been ordered first

Q6.

Data is presented in a dot plot. The median value is .

Correct Answer: 4, four