The effects of graphing software on students ability to analyze data

Abstract

In order to think critically in today's world, the Partnership for 21st Century Learning states that students will need to be able to analyze data. Also, a large portion of standardized testing is reading and interpreting graphs. These two factors determined the goal of this project. The goal of this project was to determine the effectiveness of TinkerPlots software on student's ability to analyze data. This paper covers seven months of the project where the students were taught how to use the software and then used it on multiple projects. Data collected indicates that the students' ability to analyze data increased and their attitudes improved when analyzing data. Data also indicated that teacher's attitudes improved when teaching data analysis.