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A scavenger hunt can be an opportunity to explore the use of statistics in the world around you. Think of the scavenger hunt as a way to show the extent of your knowledge, your depth of understanding and your levels of sophistication in using some of your statistical skills.

Safety: Let an adult know where you are going before you do this activity

Each team will need

• Clipboard
• A printed copy of the questions (optional)
•  Camera or phone camera
• Stopwatch or timer

What to do

With an adult’s help and supervision, choose the location for your scavenger hunt. You may prefer to do this in a group. A trip to the local markets or an excursion to a busy shopping centre would be ideal.

Each team should start their stopwatch and then complete the following tasks:

1. Find ten words or objects that start with each letter in the word ‘STATISTICS’. e.g. S = Supermarket, T = Tea shop, etc. Take a photo of each and write a description on your clipboard, so you can find it easily.
2. Find a store or product that has a statistical word in its title. For example ‘Bob’s Photography’ has the word ‘graph’ in its title. Take a photo of your store or item and write down the word on your clipboard.

   

3. Find four different items, with different prices, whose average price is between $4.50 and $5.00. Try to get the average as close to $4.50 as possible. Take a photo of the price of each and show your calculation.
4. Take a photo of a graph that you see used by a shop or product.
5. Choose a shop or stall and take a photo of it. Imagine you could ask every customer of the store one question to collect data to improve business. e.g. How long would you be prepared to wait for your coffee to be made? Write down your question on your clipboard.
6. Look around a store. Take a photo of at least one decimal, at least one fraction and at least one percentage used on signs or products. Do you notice any trends in how these are used? Write your thoughts on the clipboard.

Wrapping up

Once you’ve finished all your tasks, stop your stopwatch and meet up with all the other groups.

1. Record the time taken for each group in the scavenger hunt, and calculate the range, mean, median and mode. Which measure is the best to use in this situation?
2. Compare your answers and see if you can decide which team did the ‘best’ job. Would it have been easier if you had discussed how to determine this before the scavenger hunt? Why?

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