Topics · Graphs, Data & Chance
What's typical
Three ways to say 'usually': level everything out (mean), find the middle (median), find the most common (mode).
'The average kid…' — now you'll know what that really means.
More ways into this idea
- Play with itData PlaygroundChange one bar and watch the mean, median and mode react
Step into a storyThe Garden VoteOne wild Friday is about to bend the numbers.
Step into a storyThe Bird CountYou can't check every tree. You can still count the birds.- Make it a gameTypical or Tricky?Read the question, then pick the summary that fits
- Test yourselfA fresh mixed set, whenever you likeExplanations after every question. Nothing is recorded.
Common sticking points
- A common sticking point is thinking the mean has to be one of the numbers in the list. It usually isn't — it's the level-it-out number.
- Another is looking for the median before putting the values in order. The middle position only means something once they're sorted.
- A third is treating the mean as always the best summary. It's often right — but one unusually large value can pull it away from what most of the data looks like.
Try this together
Write five numbers — try 2, 3, 3, 4, 8. Make a stack of coins or buttons for each one (20 in total). Move pieces from the tall stacks to the short ones until all five match. What height did every stack reach? That's the mean. Now put the original numbers in order: what's in the middle? And which one appears most?
1–5 minutes, no materials to buy, nothing to hand in.
Ontario curriculum details
- D1.5Find the mean, median and mode
Plain-language summaries. See the full curriculum for every expectation and the official source.