The case of the missing cake

It was Sam’s birthday so his grandmother baked him a cake to share with his classmates at lunchtime. Everyone was excited. All morning the children could smell the delicious chocolate cake. It made it very difficult to concentrate. Hohepa asked if they could have lunch early. Ling was caught ‘sniffing’ the cake. Ms Royal, the teacher decided everyone should go outside for a run before lunch. When they got back the cake was gone. All that was left were a few crumbs and a muddy footprint.

What can we find out about the cake thief to help narrow the search?

Using 25 students from CensusAtSchool data, students will attempt to solve the mystery of who stole the chocolate cake.
This activity explores the following ideas:

• Using a scatterplot to describe the relationship between two variables
• Using a scatterplot for bivariate data
• Using a scatterplot to make a prediction

Resources:

• Student worksheet A
• Student worksheet B
• Student worksheet C
• Teacher instructions

Achievement Objectives

• Level 4
  • S4-1Plan and conduct investigations using the statistical enquiry cycle
    • B gathering, sorting, and displaying multivariate category, measurement, and time-series data to detect patterns, variations, relationships, and trends
    • C comparing distributions visually