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Session 2 of 8
Questions We
Can Count
Not every question can be answered with data. Today we learn the difference — and write our first data question!
📊 Data Science for Young Minds · Grade 2
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Today's Plan
What We're Doing Today
- 🎯 Hook — two questions, which can we count?
- ❓ Countable vs. un-countable questions
- ✅ What makes a good data question
- 🃏 Question Sort — 12 cards to sort!
- 💬 Compare with a partner
- 📝 Write your own data question
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Opening Hook
Which Question Can We Count?
❓ Question A
"Do you like school?"
What answers might we get?
❓ Question B
"How do you get to school?"
What answers might we get?
Which one could we answer with a number? Which one is hard to count?
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Lesson
Countable vs. Un-Countable
✅ We CAN Count This
- "What is your favorite season?"
- "How many pets do you have?"
- "How do you get to school?"
These have clear answer choices we can tally up!
❌ We CAN'T Easily Count This
- "What do you think about school?"
- "Why do you like recess?"
- "What makes a good friend?"
Everyone gives a different answer — hard to count!
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Lesson
What Makes a Good Data Question?
- 📌 It has clear answer choices people can pick from
- 🔢 The answers can be counted
- 👍 Anyone could answer it — not just some people
- 📋 The choices don't overlap or confuse
A great data question sounds like:
"What is your favorite ___?" or "How many ___ do you have?"
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Lesson
Answer Choices Matter!
When we ask a survey question, we give people answer choices to pick from. This makes counting easy!
Question: "What is your favorite season?"
☀️
Summer
🍂
Fall
❄️
Winter
🌸
Spring
Now we can count how many chose each season. Without answer choices, we'd get hundreds of different answers!
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Activity Time!
Question Sort!
You have 12 question cards. Your job:
- 📖 Read each card carefully
- 🤔 Ask yourself: "Could I count the answers?"
- ✅ Put it in "We CAN count this" — or
- ❌ Put it in "We CAN'T count this"
- ⭐ First sort alone — then compare with your partner!
⏱ Solo sort: 5 minutes. Partner compare: 5 minutes. Some cards are tricky — that's okay!
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Sort Help
When You're Not Sure…
Ask yourself these questions about the card:
- 🔢 "Could I answer this with a number?"
- ✅ "Are there a small number of possible answers?"
- 👥 "Could the whole class answer the same way — by picking one choice?"
- 📊 "Could I make a list of the answers and count them?"
If yes to most → CAN count. If no → CAN'T count easily.
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Debrief
Let's Compare Sorts!
With your partner, look at your two sorts:
- ✅ Did you agree on most cards?
- 🤔 Were there any cards you put in different piles?
- 💬 For the tricky ones — explain your thinking to each other
- ⭐ Which card was the hardest to decide?
There is no single wrong answer for the tricky cards — what matters is your reasoning!
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🧠
Brain Break — Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down!
Your teacher reads a question.
👍 Thumbs UP if we can count the answers.
👎 Thumbs DOWN if we can't.
Stand up for this one — show your answer big!
Your thumbs are data too — the teacher is counting them! 📊
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Lesson
Closed Questions Have Answer Choices
A closed question gives people choices to pick from. This is what we use for surveys!
😕 Open Question
- "What food do you like?"
- Could get 20 different answers
- Hard to count and compare
😊 Closed Question
- "Which lunch do you like most?"
- Pizza / Pasta / Sandwich / Salad
- Easy to count each choice!
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Your Turn
Write Your Own Data Question!
Now you try. Write a question that:
- 📌 Your classmates could answer
- 🔢 Has answers we could count
- ✅ Has 3–4 clear answer choices
Starter ideas:
"What is your favorite ___?"
"How many ___ do you have?"
"Do you prefer ___ or ___?"
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Vocabulary
Words to Know
Data question
A question whose answer is a number or a count
Answer choice
One of the options people can pick in a survey
Closed question
A question with set answer choices to pick from
Count
Find out how many by going through one by one
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Worksheet Time
Let's Write It Down
- 📚 Part 1 — Vocabulary in your own words
- 🃏 Part 2 — Record your sort results
- ✏️ Part 3 — Write your own data question with answer choices
- 💬 Part 4 — Explain: why do answer choices help?
- 🏠 Take-home — Find a survey in the real world!
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Wrap Up
Session 2 Complete! 🎉
- ✅ Data questions have answers we can count
- ✅ Closed questions give people answer choices
- ✅ Answer choices make our data easy to use
- ✅ Some questions are tricky — and that's part of the thinking
🔮 Coming up — Session 3: We actually run a survey! You'll ask 5 classmates your question and record their answers.