Learn Without Walls
📄 Save or print this lesson:
← Session 8 HomeLesson 1 of 4Next Lesson →

Lesson 1: Planning Your Report

About 30 minutes — Activity-based lesson

What You Will Learn

This lesson covers:

Choosing a topic you care about with available data

This section covers the key ideas about choosing a topic you care about with available data. Discuss with your group or family and explore the concepts together.

Forming a clear, specific, data-answerable question

This section covers the key ideas about forming a clear, specific, data-answerable question. Discuss with your group or family and explore the concepts together.

Planning your data source: will you collect or find existing data?

This section covers the key ideas about planning your data source: will you collect or find existing data?. Discuss with your group or family and explore the concepts together.

Outlining your report structure

This section covers the key ideas about outlining your report structure. Discuss with your group or family and explore the concepts together.

Check Your Understanding

1. What goes in a data report?

Answer: Title, question, method, data collected, analysis (with graphs), conclusions, and reflection. It tells the complete story of your investigation.

2. How do you choose a good topic?

Answer: Pick something you genuinely care about where data is available. Better topics lead to more interesting reports.

3. Should you collect data or use existing data?

Answer: Either works! Collecting your own data (survey) gives you control. Using existing data (weather records, sports stats) gives you more data to work with.

4. What should your outline look like?

Answer: (1) Title and question, (2) How I collected/found my data, (3) My organized data, (4) My graphs, (5) What I found, (6) What I learned.

Key Takeaways

Ready for More?

Next Lesson

Continue to Lesson 2: Analyzing Your Data

Start Lesson 2

Session Home

Review all lessons and materials.

Back to Session Home