This lesson can be very fun to teach because there are so many real world implications of Mean, Median, and Mode. Here are some great ways to introduce Mean, Median, and Mode to your math class.
Mean (Calculate Your Grade)
The obvious place to start is by teaching them how to find their grades. They will know this as finding their “average” but you can reprogram them to always call it finding their “Mean.” This can be fun because my students never ask me what their grade is. They ask me for their Mean. If they ask for their grade or average I simply say what’s that and then they laugh and correct themselves to ask for their Mean. Corny but they remember it forever!
The mean is the average of the numbers: a calculated “central” value of a set of numbers. To calculate: Just add up all the numbers, then divide by how many numbers there are.
Median (Middle of the Road)
Your students are getting close to being able to drive. I simply ask them what is the middle of the highway called.
One of them will know it is called the Median.
Then I ask them “Where is the Median located?”
They respond “the middle!”
Now I can go into explaining the Median is the Middle Number in a set. This is a perfect comparison that they will remember.
To find the Median, place the numbers you are given in value order and find the middle number. (If there are two middle numbers, you average them.)
Mode (The MOst)
Of course their always has to be one difficult one to remember. That is exactly how I start with the Mode. It doesn’t have a daily used easy to remember comparison. I explain to them that the other two are so easy to remember that this is the one they have to think about a little. The Mode is the number in a set that occurs the Most!
I teach it like this. MOde start with MO and MOst starts with MO! Simple!
The number which appears most often in a set of numbers.
