Developing mathematical and statistical critical-thinking, problem-solving and analytical skills is of outermost importance in today’s world. These skills have been set and summarized for students from kindergarten through 12th grade in the Common Core State Standards, and it is necessary to define the methods, materials and different strategies to support them. The present research focused on the implementation of didactic materials to assist the teaching/learning process of a statistics topic in high school students using aquaculture data.
This study consisted of a virtual implementation of six lessons about the measures of central tendency, using data from artificial reproduction of the long whiskered catfish (Pimelodus grosskopfii). Sequential situations from broodstock feed management, broodstock selection, fish condition factor, fish oocyte size distribution, selecting females for hormone injection based on oocyte distribution, and stocking of fingerlings were linked to concepts of random sampling, types of variables, the mean, median and mode for non-grouped and grouped data.
The research was performed at a high school institution in Neiva (Huila, Colombia), with students from two courses of ninth grade, using a qualitative approach. The methodology was a multiple case study, selecting three students from each course. Data collection methods included questionnaires, interviews, documents, and direct and indirect observations. The implementation of the didactic material included animated videos that allowed the introduction to the lessons as initial motivation; power point presentations that included the contextualized aquaculture situation; diagnostic tests to determine previous knowledge, and post-evaluation test to determine acquired knowledge, using Google forms; and finally, homework that was submitted after each lesson.
Five (5) types of mathematical standards were evidenced in each of the sessions, including: 1) Number and operations thinking; 2) measurement and data systems; 3) operations and algebraic thinking; 4) Rations and proportional relationships; and 5) Statistics and probability. The virtual implementation of this statistics manual in the context of aquaculture was of interest to students, and it may highlight the importance of applying real context situations and the usefulness of mathematics in students’ daily life.