The concept of data is a basic necessity for statistics topics. Data is the collection of information for analysis. It can be presented to any audience, including 4th and 5th grade. If you conduct a contest for kids and collect the results, that information can be translated into sample data. It should be explained (to the class) that the rows and columns have meaning. And basic statistics , that involves subtraction or addition, can be performed on your sample. For instance, the mode is pretty simple to calculate for any 1st grader. Your mode is the number that gets repeated the most. Your range is another statistic that most kids could calculate , as it involved subtraction. The sum is a basic calculation that any kid can generate between first and sixth grade.So I am of the school of thought anyone can start to learn the language of statistics.
-Moore to follow-Amy
