The Challenge:
How can we use data and digital storytelling to help our community better prepare for weather-related disturbances and flooding?
Every rainy season, families living in the low-lying and flood-prone communities along the Baliwag–Bustos River face a familiar uncertainty. Heavy rains and weather disturbances can cause river levels to rise, threatening homes, disrupting daily routines, and forcing families to make difficult decisions to protect their loved ones and belongings.
While many of our Grade 5 students were aware of flooding, most had never explored the experiences behind the news reports or considered how data could help communities prepare for such events. As we begin our unit on statistics, we saw an opportunity to connect mathematics to a real issue affecting our local community.
Essential Question
What story does data tell about flooding and preparedness in our community?
Math Learning Goals:
- Collect bivariate data from interviews, questionnaires, and other appropriate sources.
- Construct double bar graphs and double line graphs.
- Interpret data presented in a double bar graph or a double line graph.
- Draw conclusions or make inferences based on data presented in a double bar graph or a double line graph.
Interdisciplinary Connection:
Armed with their iPads, students will step into the role of community researchers. They will interview residents living near the Baliwag–Bustos River, listen to stories of resilience and preparedness, document community experiences, and gather data about the impacts of flooding.
- Mathematics - Data collection and interpretation
- Science - Understanding weather disturbances
- ICT - Amplifying community voices through digital storytelling.
Technology that will Support Learning:
The iPad will became a tool for inquiry, creation, and communication. Students will use:
- Camera for documentation and interviews
- Voice Memos for recording conversations
- Numbers for organizing and analyzing data
- Freeform for planning
- Keynote for results' presentation
Action Steps:
- Launching the Investigation: Students will be introduced to the mathematical challenge and identify potential data to collect from community members using the Freeform App.
- Planning for Data Collection: Using Freeform, groups will brainstorm survey questions and categorize them by the type of data they would generate.
- Data Collection Tools: Students will design interview recording sheets. Using an iPad, they will prepare a response tally sheet.
- Community Data Collection: Students will visit flood-prone communities near the Baliwag–Bustos River and collect data from residents.
- Organizing and Representing Data: Back in the classroom, the students will encode survey responses using Numbers. As they work, they will begin noticing patterns emerging from the data.
- Analyzing and Interpreting Data: Students will examine their graphs and tables to answer key questions using Numbers and Keynote.
- Data Storytelling: Students will transform their mathematical findings into visual stories in collaboration with their Science subject. Using Keynote, they will create a presentation that includes Graphs and charts, Key findings, Evidence-based conclusions, and Recommendations for preparedness
- Presentation and Reflection: Groups will present their data stories. Students will reflect on the investigation.
Mathematics Skills Developed:
- Data collection and organization
- Frequency counts
- Data representation
- Graph interpretation
- Trend analysis
- Evidence-based reasoning
- Communication of mathematical findings
Impact on Learning:
By working with real data from flood-prone communities, students will experience mathematics as a meaningful tool for understanding real-world issues. They will develop skills in collecting, organizing, representing, and interpreting data while learning to draw evidence-based conclusions. More importantly, students will discover that behind every graph and statistic is a human story. The project will help them see how data can be used not only to understand community challenges but also to inform decisions and promote preparedness.
Attach up to 5 files which will be available for other members to download.