Data in Search of a Context: An Online Icebreaker Activity

Because context plays a critical part in data collection, analysis, and interpretation, we offer an icebreaker activity during which students explore data with an unknown context. We previously developed this activity for small, in-person, introductory statistics courses (White et al., 2018), and we adapted the instructions and materials for online instruction. Surprisingly, we observed more robust conversations of critical concepts during the online implementation. We report how students engaged in the activity, by creating graphs of their own and identifying features of data representations that help them reveal the context. Finally, we discuss how concepts introduced in the icebreaker activity can be developed in later classes.