Download a PDF file containing a four page worksheet with graph plotting questions. There are two questions about plotting quadratics in the first quadrant, and these questions include plotting a straight line and reading off the intersection points. Another question is about finding the gradient and intercept of two straight line graphs and then writing down their formulas. A further question asks the student to plot two straight lines from supplied formulas, making up their own points.

Just a quick job using a spreadsheet to generate the grids and graphs (actually, I simply drew the straight line graphs onto the grid generated by a speadsheet).

The presentation above on SlideShare shows how I introduce the idea of central tendency or location and the concept of spread or dispersion. Most Level 2 Access Maths get the idea and go on to compare frequency polygons drawn from supplied data sets and from data they collect themselves.

The slide above brings home the idea of spread – I try to find illustrations relevant to the ‘pathway’ (easiest for the health professions students). Vocabulary is important in statistics so look out for some crosswords…