Solving Problems with Line Plots- Info Gap: Picking Fruit (IM Grade 5, Unit 6, Lesson 15)
Task
Lesson Purpose This activity, which features an Information Gap routine (also Info Gap routine), gives students an opportunity to solve problems about data represented on line plots. In both sets of cards, there is a partially complete line plot and some unknown data. This activity uses MLR4 Information Gap. For the first set of cards, the Problem Card has the unknown data and the Data Card has a partially complete line plot. How Tuva Enhances the lesson This Tuva activity strengthens and extends a standard line plot lesson in several important ways: Conceptual Sense-Making: Students move beyond rote plotting and counting marks. By exploring missing data and identifying the most common weight (mode), they engage directly with data patterns, clusters, and distributions. This encourages students to ask questions and make reasoning visible — key aspects of mathematical sense-making. Interactive Visualization: Using Tuva’s draggable circles and dynamic line plots reduces cognitive load and fine motor barriers, allowing students to focus on interpreting data rather than just creating it. Students can instantly see the impact of adding or removing data points, helping them understand how datasets influence the most common value. Comparing Multiple Datasets: Adding Han’s data to Noah’s graph allows students to observe how combining data affects patterns and the most common weight, reinforcing the idea that measures of central tendency depend on the dataset. Splitting the data into two separate line plots makes differences and clusters more visible, supporting deeper understanding of variation, spread, and comparison. Introduction to Mode: Students are introduced to the term “mode” in context, connecting it to the intuitive concept of the most common value. This builds a bridge from familiar counting strategies to formal mathematical vocabulary, preparing students for future discussions of mean, median, and other statistics. Supports Inquiry and Reasoning: The Info Gap structure encourages students to identify missing information, ask questions, and justify their thinking. Teachers can facilitate rich discussions around patterns, similarities, differences, and reasoning strategies, fostering a mathematically rich classroom culture. In summary: This Tuva lesson goes beyond basic line plot skills by providing interactive, dynamic, and comparative experiences that develop both conceptual understanding and foundational data literacy. Students not only learn to construct line plots but also interpret, compare, and reason about data — all while building a strong foundation for later work in statistics and probability.
Info Gap: Picking Fruit You’re going to solve problems using a line plot that shows fractional data. In this activity, you’ll start with some information—just enough to get you thinking, but not enough to solve the problem. Your job is to: 1. Figure out what other information you need to answer the question. 2. Ask questions to get that information. 3. Use all the data to solve the problem and explain your reasoning. Click Next to get started!
Topics and standards: Illustrative Math & Tuva, Grade 5