Once upon a time, there was a scientist named Sue who loved to collect data. One day, she wanted to measure the temperature of different objects in her lab. She used a special scan tool to get the exact temperature readings and recorded them on a bar graph.

Sue’s friend, Mike, came to visit her and saw the bar graph. He asked Sue what it was all about. Sue explained that each column represented the temperature reading of an object and each tally mark showed how many times the object had been scanned. Mike was curious and wanted to guess which object had the highest degree of temperature.

Sue challenged him to a game of “Guess the Hottest Object”. Mike looked at the bar graph and made his best guess. But when Sue revealed the answer, she showed him that the tallest column was not the hottest object after all! It was just the object that had been scanned the most times.

Mike learned that sometimes, you need to look at all the data and not just rely on your first impression to make a certain conclusion. And from then on, he always made sure to study all the data before making any guesses.

The end.

Reflections

1. What was the scientist, Sue, measuring in the lab?
2. How did Sue record the data she collected?
3. What did Mike do when he saw the bar graph?
4. What was the game that Sue and Mike played called?
5. What did Mike learn from playing the game?
6. Why is it important to study all the data before making any conclusions?