Abstract:
In response to the problem about how to build on students’ initial conceptions shown in Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs), recent mathematics education research proposed using Follow Up Tasks (FUTs) within the same context as the MEA to scaffold and consolidate students’ reasoning. In this paper, we focus on four 12-year-old students who had completed a schoolbag weight MEA using TinkerPlots. Based on a qualitative analysis of their reasoning and artefacts produced during the MEA, FUTs were designed to introduce them to notions such as representative samples, assessing model fit and conditioning. Findings suggest that FUTs have the potential to develop in students more sophisticated statistical modelling conceptions and competencies, including the ability to adapt their MEA schoolbag weight model to incorporate conditioning.
