‘What’s Going On in This Graph?’ Goes Weekly

What’s Going On in This Graph? (WGOITG)—an activity for students in grades 7–12 to help them better understand and critically interpret graphs—recently went to a weekly format. Started as a monthly activity in the fall of 2017 as a partnership between the ASA and New York Times Learning Network (NYTLN), WGOITG facilitates teacher-led discussions about graphs that have appeared in The New York Times.

Each of the 2018–2019 releases will go online Tuesday afternoons, with live moderation Wednesdays from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. ET. Each Friday morning, NYTLN will update WGOITG with the “reveal,” which shares the original article containing the graph, highlights from the moderation, related statistical concepts, and helpful vocabulary. NYTLN will also announce information about the coming week’s WGOITG.

Sharon Hessney, WGOITG lead for the ASA, offered the following benefits of the program to WGOITG moderator Doug Tyson:

• Zero cost
• 100% accessible (grades 7–12 for all courses - math, science, humanities)
• 0–60 minutes (homework - full period with group and whole-class discussions)

To learn more about using WGOITG, read this Statistics Teacher article and this ThisIsStatistics post.

Editor’s Note: The ASA’s engagement with NYTLN was initiated by ThisIsStatistics outreach regarding the fall 2016 election prediction contest resulting in this lesson plan.