Teaching Statistics With Tootsie Pop Data

Need To Teach Statistics? Mean, Median, Mode, Range, Standard Deviation, etc? Then you need data...

Now, you can surly get data from predetermined data sets, but such data does create any relevance. It doesn't spark any interest because it is too far removed from the student and the classroom. Here's an idea! Tootsie Pops!

How many licks does it take to get to the center of the tootsie pop?

So here's what you do. Buy a couple bags of tootsie pop suckers

1st: you must decide if your question is how many licks to remove all the candy around the tootsie pop, 1/2 of it, or simply to reach the tootsie pop.

Now decide, do you distribute them at the beginning of class and allow the students to lick the sucker throughout class, or assign it as homework? Either way, you will collect a diverse set of data that will interesting to investigate. Let me know how it goes! Send pics handonmath@gmail.com