This statistics module provides an excellent opportunity to develop pupils’ analytical skills in an interdisciplinary context. By discovering that several statistical interpretations can be valid, pupils are naturally led to think about the wider implications of this interpretative flexibility.

The teacher can exploit this opening to establish significant connections with the Life and Society course, particularly its Culture and Communication strand. The fundamental questions addressed in this strand find a direct echo in statistical analysis:

• What is the difference between prejudice, judgement and knowledge?
• What are the media and how are they used?
• Are the media neutral? Do the media show us the world or just images of the world?
• Information or propaganda?
• Am I letting myself be manipulated by the media?

To enrich this interdisciplinary connection, teachers can use the following video from the French educational platform Lumni¹. This clip will enable pupils to make the link between their statistical work in class and the wider issues of media literacy and critical thinking in the information society.

http://www.lumni.fr/video/les-journalistes-sondeurs

This integrated approach not only strengthens pupils’ mathematical skills but also develops their ability to make informed judgements about quantitative information presented in the media and in everyday life.

Remark: While the video is presented in French, you’ll find the full transcript beneath it, which you can easily translate to English using online translation tools.

1 Lumni is the educational offering for pupils and teachers from all the players in the public audiovisual sector (Arte, France Médias Monde, France Télévisions, INA, Radio France and TV5Monde). This unique, free, expert and commercial-free offering provides access to culture, knowledge and learning for all children aged 3 to 20 and covers all school subjects from nursery school to the end of secondary school.

The integration of the PITT Data Viz Superpowers module offers a natural and enriching extension to the initial statistical work. This approach would deepen the pupils’ learning experience by taking them from analysis to visual communication of data.

There are a number of ways in which teachers can integrate this:

Transforming surveys into visual storytelling – The data collected by pupils in their initial survey could be reworked into storytelling (Exercise 11 of 3#Data Viz Superpowers 3.3 Teaching Materials). This approach would enable pupils to understand how statistics can be integrated into a coherent and persuasive narrative.

Creative data representations – Beyond conventional graphs, the teacher could encourage pupils to explore more creative and innovative visualisations (as suggested in 3#Data Viz Superpowers 3.5 Evaluation Ideas). This would stimulate their creativity while enhancing their understanding of the data.

Critical analysis of misleading visualisations – Exercises 12 to 15 in 3#Data Viz Superpowers 3.3 Teaching Materials provide a valuable opportunity to examine graphic manipulation techniques. Teachers could use these resources to develop pupils’ critical thinking skills in relation to potentially misleading visual representations in the media.

This integrated approach would not only enhance technical skills in data visualisation, but also provide an opportunity to reflect more deeply on the ethical and communicational dimensions of statistics. Pupils would discover the dual nature of visualisations: powerful tools for communication but also potential instruments for manipulation, developing their visual literacy and their ability to navigate in a world where data is omnipresent