TinkerPlots

Key takeaways

TinkerPlots belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect TinkerPlots to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of TinkerPlots from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

TinkerPlots is exploratory data analysis and modeling software designed for use by students in grades 4 through university. It was designed by Clifford Konold and Craig Miller at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is currently published by Learn Troop. It runs on Windows XP or later and Mac OS 10.4 or later. The program allows users to enter their own data, to import them from other applications or the Web, or to generate them using a sampling engine. The program also comes with 50 multivariate data sets. Using TinkerPlots, students can make a large variety of graphs, including those specified for middle school in Common Core State Standards for Mathematics But rather than making these graphs directly using commands, students construct them by progressively organizing cases using basic operations including “stack,” “order,” and “separate.” Responding to these operations, case icons animate into different screen positions. The interface was based on observations of people organizing “data cards” on a table to make graphs to answer specific questions Innovations of TinkerPlots include using a superimposed color gradient to detect covariation in two numeric attributes and a “hat plot,” a reformulated and generalized version of the box plot. The latest version is 3.0.37. This version does not have substantively different features from versions 2.1, 2.2 or 2.3, but is a complete re-write in a code sense, and has a number of bug fixes and enhancements to remain compatible with the latest versions of Windows and MacOS.

References

Additional References Bakker, A., Derry, J., & Konold, C. (2006). Using technology to support diagrammatic reasoning about center and variation. In A. Rossman & B. Chance (Eds.) Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS) CD-ROM. Salvador, Bahai, Brazil, July 2–7, 2006. Friel, S. (2002). "Wooden or steal roller coasters: What's the choice?". New England Journal of Mathematics. 34: 40–54. Hoyles, C.; Bakker, A.; Kent, P.; Noss, R. (2007). "Attributing meanings to representations of data: The case of statistical process control". Mathematical Thinking and Learning. 9 (4): 331–360. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.661.2497. doi:10.1080/10986060701533326. S2CID 3150858. {{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter |citeseerx= (help) Konold, C., & Lehrer, R. (in press). Technology and mathematics education: An essay in honor of Jim Kaput. In L. English (Ed.), Handbook of International Research in Mathematics Education, (2nd edition). New York: Routledge. Rubin, A. (2007). "Much has changed; little has changed: Revisiting the role of technology in statistics education 1992-2007". Technology Innovations in Statistics Education. 1 (1): Article 6. doi:10.5070/T511000027. Rubin, A., Hammerman, J., & Konold, C. (2006). Exploring informal inference with interactive visualization software. In A. Rossman & B. Chance (Eds.) Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS) CD-ROM. Salvador, Bahai, Brazil, July 2–7, 2006.

Educational Materials using TinkerPlots Konold, C. (2005). Exploring Data with TinkerPlots. Key Curriculum Press, ISBN 1-55953-750-7. Contents: Getting Started, Learning TinkerPlots, Teaching with TinkerPlots, Activities, Activity Notes. [1] Brodesky, A., Doherty, A., & Stoddard, J. (2008). Digging into Data with TinkerPlots. Key Curriculum Press, 225 pp. ISBN 978-1-55953-885-5. Contents: (1) Comparisons, Distributions, and Line Plots: Exploring Data about Cats, (2) Comparisons and Boxplots: Investigating Data about Middle-School Students, (3) Comparisons using Formulas: Investigating Data about Signatures and Words, (4) Measures of Center and Histograms: Analyzing Safety Data, (5) Relationships between Attributes and Scatter Plots: Investigating Sports Data. [2] Walsh, T. (2009). The Survey Toolkit: Collecting Information, Analyzing Data, and Writing Reports. Contents: Choosing a Research Question, Developing and Giving the Survey, Analyzing Survey Data, Sharing Results. 112pp. ISBN 978-1-55953-886-2. [3] TinkerPlots Instructional Movies (2010). These 10 short movies where developed by the Statistics Education Research Group in 2010, and published with TinkerPlots, in QuickTime and AVI format. Titles: TinkerPlots Basics, Adding Data, Making Common Graphs, Comparing Groups, Exploring Relationships 1, Exploring Relationships 2, Building a Data Factory, Simulating Group Differences, Probabilities Simulation, Creating Sample Spaces [4] TinkerPlots Workshop Guide (2007). ISBN 978-1-55953-961-6. [5] TinkerPlots Walkthrough Guide and Quick Reference Card (included in Instructors Evaluation Edition). Free TinkerPlots Activities and Resources on Key Curriculum Website Free TinkerPlots Activities and Resources on University of Massachusetts Website

External links TinkerPlots 2.3 publishers web site at Learn Troop TinkerPlots 2.2 publishers web site at University of Massachusetts Amherst TinkerPlots 2.1 publishers web site at Key Curriculum

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with TinkerPlots

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what TinkerPlots claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to TinkerPlots before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about TinkerPlots ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of TinkerPlots

In research: TinkerPlots appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses TinkerPlots in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: TinkerPlots is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Educational software, Exploratory data analysis, Plotting software, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for TinkerPlots outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study TinkerPlots in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what TinkerPlots means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain TinkerPlots out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is TinkerPlots in simple terms?

TinkerPlots is exploratory data analysis and modeling software designed for use by students in grades 4 through university. It was designed by Clifford Konold and Craig Miller at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is currently published by Learn Troop.

Why does TinkerPlots matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study TinkerPlots?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on TinkerPlots.