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the most? Least? etc.) we created a Statistical Analysis Assignment (Appendix A). This activity was not aimed at teaching the PSTs how to teach statistics, but to become comfortable with statisti cal analysis and reasoning. The design and imple mentation of the activity were structured around the four steps in the statistical problem - solving process. The components of the activity are de scribed below. The PSTs worked in groups of 3 with each group tasked with selecting and analyzing data and shar ing a summary of their findings. The task allowed the PSTs to informally formulate ideas about their statistical investigation and consider the data need ed for their project. They submitted a written report and a group presentation of their findings. That offered the PSTs an opportunity to analyze the data and interpret the results. The 4 steps of the statistical problem - solving pro cess are embedded throughout the task. For exam ple, the PSTs were asked to informally formulate ideas about their statistical investigation and con sider the data needed for their project (steps i and ii). PSTs selected demographic areas (gender, race, socioeconomic status) and were asked to include their personal reasons for choosing the demograph ic. Next, they searched Google Scholar (https:// scholar.google.com) for articles later than 2010, about their statistical investigation. Each group se lected one school district from one of the 8 Virgin ia regions. The Virginia department of education website contained data for the 8 regions and the school districts within each region such as popula tion, rural or urban, etc. [http:// www.doe.virginia.gov/directories/schools/ school_info_by_regions.shtml] The written report demonstrated the PSTs ’ ability to communicate their findings and allowed them to investigate an area of interest to them. For the writ ten report, the PSTs included individual summaries of each school district including location, popula tion, rural or urban, etc. Each PST had to select a demographic (e.g., gender, race, socioeconomic status) and describe it including why they thought it was important to investigate. In addition, they were asked to provide research about their selected Activity Components

Teachers supporting their students ’ development must first become familiar with the nuances of sta tistical analysis themselves, the tools used in analy sis, and the statistical problem - solving process.

Framing the Activity

The activity was implemented in a methods course for elementary preservice teachers. The 3 - credit course aims to prepare the PSTs to design and im plement effective, developmentally appropriate mathematics instruction for grades PreK - 6. The specific emphasis of this course is on children ’ s mathematical learning about geometry, measure ment, statistics and data analysis, and probability. While the content is woven throughout the course, there are sections of the course devoted to each of the four content areas. This project took place dur ing the 4 - week section addressing statistics and data analysis. Prior to beginning the statistical analysis assign ment, the PSTs read about and discussed how data can be analyzed and interpreted. They were as signed readings from their course textbook (Van de Walle, et.al., 2019) as well as reading the article Statistics in Elementary School: Exploring Distri butions of Data (Franklin & Mewborn, 2008). The article describes elementary students used both cat egorical and discrete quantitative data. The pur pose of this reading was to help the PSTs think about the differences between categorical and nu meric data. Additionally, the mathematics teacher educator (MTE) facilitated discussions about the types of graphical representations appropriate for each (e.g., line plots, bar graphs, pictographs, line graphs, stem - and - leaf plots, circle graphs) and the PSTs investigated scenarios related to why it would make sense to use one type of graph versus another. PSTs constructed graphs and discussed the information provided in each graph. Compar ing various graphical representations allowed PSTs an opportunity to learn how different graphs can show different aspects of the data.

Design of the Activity

Drawing on the need to help the PSTs move be yond their surface - level understanding of statistics (e.g., ‘ Here is a Bar Graph … which category has

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