Unit 5 Contents

14. With your partner, complete the same activity that Irma and Tanya did.
1. Return the cubes to your bag. Be sure they have all been separated.
2. Pull out one handful of cubes and build a tower with the cubes in your hand. Take turns with your partner until you have built five towers.
3. Find the median number of cubes in your towers.
4. Draw a picture of your towers. Record the median on your drawing.
5. Find the mean number of cubes. Record the mean on your drawing. (Remember, you must keep the same number of towers. Do not add any more cubes from the bag or put any cubes back in the bag.)

Using Cubes to Solve Problems

Solve the following problems. Use towers of cubes to help you.

15. Jacob surveyed five families on his block. He filled in the following data table. Jacob found the median and the mean number of people in a household using towers.
1. Jacob built five towers. Why?
2. What did each tower stand for?
3. What did each cube stand for?
4. Use towers to find the median.
5. Use towers to find the mean. (Hint: Use the closest number for your answer.)
16. When Mrs. Dewey was in the fourth grade, she took a math quiz each week. Every quiz had ten problems. She got 10 problems right the first week, 7 problems right the second week, 8 problems right the third week, and 4 problems right the fourth week. Use towers to find the median and mean.
1. How many towers will you build?
2. What does each tower stand for?
3. What does each cube stand for?
4. Find the median. (Hint: What number is halfway between the number of cubes in the middle two towers?)
5. Even out the towers to find the mean. (You must use the same number of towers as in Question 16A.)