The heat is on! Using a stylised graph to engender understanding

Graphing opportunities in the primary classroom focus on the application of conventional graphical representations, such as column graphs. The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2016), however, provides the opportunity for various graph types to be used to display and interpret data. In Year 1, there are no particular graphical representations mentioned and students are given the freedom to display data in drawings and describe the displays. This becomes more prescribed in Years 2 and 3, when students create picture graphs and column graphs. In Years 4, 5 and 6, students are extended to construct suitable data displays, and evaluate the effectiveness and usefulness of different data displays. The graphical representations suggested are picture graphs, column graphs, and dot plots. There is, however, the potential to introduce other graphical representations that engender understanding of data and draw out the stories data have to tell. This article describes the application of an unconventional, stylised graph that has the potential to exploit students’ understanding of column graphs to interpret a graphical representation that displays time series data. Graphical representations are