Grade 6 Lesson plan
Ivensdale Plant's Basin Log: Center, Spread, and Shape
A 45-minute grade 6 lesson using fifteen days of basin readings from a water reclamation plant to compare mean and median and describe a skewed distribution.
Common Core Math · Grade 6
6.SP.B.5 Summarize numerical data sets with measures of center and spread
Summarize numerical data sets in relation to their context, reporting the number of observations, describing the attribute measured, giving quantitative measures of center and variability, and relating the choice of measures to the shape of the distribution.
Why water teaches this standard well
Students summarize a week of rainfall data with its mean, median, and range, then explain which measure best represents a week that included one unusually heavy storm. Choosing the right summary statistic for skewed rainfall data is exactly the judgment call a hydrologist makes with real storm records.
Materials tagged with this code are written to the full standard , and each carries a written note explaining the alignment. See how we review materials.
18 materials aligned to 6.SP.B.5
Lesson plans
Grade 6 Lesson plan
Coldstone Springs Well Hardness: The Limestone Underneath
A grade 6 lesson where students compare hardness data from a fictional district's limestone and granite wells and explain how water dissolving rock creates both.
Grade 6 Lesson plan
Road Salt in Merribeck Creek: A Winter Chloride Record
A grade 6 lesson where students summarize a fictional town's winter chloride readings, compare them with a creek guideline, and plan how to monitor and cut salt use.
Grade 6 Lesson plan
Corsley's Pumping Log: A Dot Plot of Fifteen Days
A grade 6 lesson on a small town's fifteen-day pumping log: students build a dot plot, then test how one main-break day pulls the mean away from the median.
Worksheets
Grade 6 Worksheet
Cold Water Below Delacourt Dam: A Diverging Palette for a River Map
Grade 6 students find the median and quartiles of fictional river temperatures below a dam, then use them to design a color-blind-safe diverging palette and legend.
Grade 6 Worksheet
The Alderpine Community Pool Saturday Chemical Log
A grade 6 worksheet on a fictional pool's four daily chlorine and pH readings, covering mean, range, percent change, ratios, and why a chlorine smell misleads.
Grade 6 Worksheet
Coldspring Chlorine Residual Log: A Grade 6 Data Worksheet
A grade 6 data worksheet where students summarize a fictional town's chlorine test readings with mean, median, range, and percent within the safe target.
Grade 6 Worksheet
Reading the Callan River Gauge: Netherby's Flood Crest
A grade 6 worksheet in which students summarize nine river gauge readings from a storm at Netherby and work out when the Callan River crossed flood stage.
Grade 6 Worksheet
Sedgemoor Reservoir: Temperature and Dissolved Oxygen Data
A grade 6 science worksheet where students summarize a fictional reservoir's oxygen data and link warm water to lower oxygen for fish.
Grade 6 Worksheet
Whitlock Creek Watch: Reading a Citizen Water-Testing Data Table
A grade 6 worksheet in which students summarize a fictional volunteer group's weekly creek-testing data and decide what evidence to bring to a town council meeting.
Math problem sets
Grade 6 Math problem set
Larkspur Basin Chlorine Residual: Dose, Demand, and Decay
A grade 6 problem set on a fictional system's chlorine tests, where students find chlorine demand, the mean and range of residuals, and compare them to the safe range.
Grade 6 Math problem set
Dissolved Oxygen at Silver Pines Pond: Mean, Median, and Range
A grade 6 math problem set where students find the mean, median, and range of fictional dissolved-oxygen readings and compare them to a real fish-safety threshold.
Labs & experiments
Grade 6 Lab / experiment
The Cold-Water Wait: Timing the Tap at Copperbeck Middle
A grade 6 health lab in which students time how long a tap runs before it turns cold, catch and measure that water, and find the flow rate per second.
Grade 6 Lab / experiment
Ridgeline Water Tower Model: Does Water Height Drive Flow?
A grade 6 lab where students uncover holes at three heights in a bottle, measure how far each stream shoots, and connect water height to pressure and flow.
Grade 6 Lab / experiment
The Stannard Brook Stream Table: Slope, Sediment, and Runoff
A grade 6 lab in which students build a stream table, change its slope, and measure how far sediment travels and how cloudy the runoff becomes.
Classroom activities
Grade 6 Classroom activity
Vireo PE Hydration Relay: A Grade 6 Fill-and-Track Station Game
A grade 6 PE station game where students log the ounces of water they drink between activity rounds, then summarize the class data with mean, median, and range.
Projects
Grade 6 Project
Bramford's First Flush: Is the First Rain off the Roof Dirtiest?
A five-session grade 6 science project testing whether early roof runoff is dirtier than later runoff, ending in a data report to a fictional school grounds committee.
Grade 6 Project
Clayburn Creek Report Card: A Four-Session Data Team Project
A grade 6 project where student teams turn four monitoring sites' oxygen readings into percents, medians, and a one-page report card for a fictional watershed council.