Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Maths
MathsAnimal data handling30 min★★★ difficulty

Presenting wildlife data: tables, bars, pie charts and line charts

Choosing the wrong chart hides your own findings. Each chart answers a different question, and species survey data gives you all of them.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Construct and interpret appropriate tables, charts and diagrams, including bar charts, pie charts and pictograms for categorical data, and vertical line charts for ungrouped discrete numerical data

Key learning points

  • • Match the chart to the data
  • • Pie charts need the whole
  • • Constructing a bar chart properly
  • • Reading beyond the obvious

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

constructinterpretappropriatetablescharts

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Presenting wildlife data: tables, bars, pie charts and line charts

An English teaching video on this topic from mathantics. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Construct and interpret appropriate tables, charts and diagrams, including bar charts, pie charts and pictograms for categorical data, and vertical line charts for ungrouped discrete numerical data

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You should already know how to read a bar chart and how to calculate a percentage of an amount.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

Categorical data
Data in named groups, such as species.
Discrete data
Numerical data with separate values, such as number of chicks.
Tally chart
A table for recording counts as they happen.
Pie chart
A circle divided into sectors showing proportions of a whole.
Vertical line chart
A chart of thin lines for ungrouped discrete numerical data.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Choosing the right display

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Match the chart to the data

Species names are categorical, so a bar chart or pictogram compares them and a pie chart shows their share of the total. The number of chicks per nest is discrete numerical, so a vertical line chart is the right display. Two continuous measurements together would need a scatter graph.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Pie charts need the whole

A pie chart only works when your categories add to a meaningful total. Convert each frequency to an angle by dividing by the total and multiplying by 360 degrees, or find the percentage first. With 60 sightings, 15 of one species is a quarter, or 90 degrees.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

Species recorded in a survey is which type of data?

8

Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

Number of chicks per nest is best shown on a

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Constructing and reading accurately

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

Constructing a bar chart properly

Label both axes with quantity and unit, start the frequency axis at zero, use equal bar widths and gaps, and keep the scale linear. A truncated axis exaggerates small differences, which is a common way survey results get misread — accidentally or deliberately.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Reading beyond the obvious

Ask what is missing as well as what is shown: how many days of recording, what time, which sites. A tall bar for pigeons in a city park may say more about your recording spot than about bird populations. Charts summarise a method as much as a population.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

In 60 sightings, 15 blackbirds is what angle on a pie chart?

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

Which practice makes a bar chart misleading?

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Bar charts have gaps between bars; histograms of grouped continuous data do not.
  • A pie chart cannot show total numbers, only proportions.
  • Starting a frequency axis above zero exaggerates differences.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

____ summarise a method as much as a population.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Presenting wildlife data: tables, bars, pie charts and line charts

6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. A pictogram must include

  2. 2. A pie chart shows

  3. 3. In 40 records, 10 foxes is

  4. 4. Gaps between bars indicate

  5. 5. Which chart compares frequencies of several species most directly?

  6. 6. A tall bar for one species may reflect

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Article

The cost of a school trip

A school is planning a trip to a wildlife park. The coach costs £480 however many people go. Entry costs £9.50 for each pupil and each adult goes free. The school says every pupil must pay the same amount, and the trip must not lose money.

If 60 pupils go, the coach works out at £8 each, so the total for each pupil is £17.50. If only 40 pupils go, the coach works out at £12 each, so the price rises to £21.50. The teacher explains that the coach is a fixed cost and the entry is a cost per person — which is why the price per pupil changes when the number changes.

The school decides to charge £20 and to use anything left over for a second trip later in the year.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Work out the total cost of the trip if 50 pupils go.
  2. Show why the price per pupil falls when more pupils go, using numbers.
  3. At £20 each, how many pupils must go before the trip makes money? Show your working.

  • Working out

    Working out

    Do the practice questions on paper, showing every step — not just the answer. Mark them yourself and circle anything you got wrong.

    10–15 questions

  • Worked example, explained

    Writing

    Copy one question out and write underneath, in words, why each step works.

    1 question, 4–5 sentences

  • Problem in words

    Working out

    Write your own real-life problem that uses today's method, then solve it.

    1 problem + solution

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

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