Simplify scale selection

Students will often present you with a graph showing the entire data set plotted in one corner of the graph paper, with several data points coalescing into an imprecise smudge. Not only do students struggle with selecting appropriate scales, they often can’t evaluate the scale they have chosen, making self-correcting difficult. This isn’t surprising, as they only ever see well-chosen scales in the resources used to teach them.

Graph drawing takes up so much teaching time that it is avoided for anything but analysing data from a class experiment. However, students’ lack of practice could add to their difficulties. I help students choose appropriate scales by first simplifying and scaffolding the task. Here’s how.