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2

UNDERPINNING IDEAS
Two fundamental ideas underpin this area of the curriculum:
 Variation
 Expectation
In the primary school probability and statistics are separate ideas but they come together in the secondary school.

3

AUSVELS: SOME CONTENT DESCRIPTIONS
Foundation
 Answer yes/no questions to collect information
Year 1
 Identify outcomes of familiar events involving chance and describe them using everyday language such as
‘will happen’, ‘won’t happen’ or ‘might happen’
 Choose simple questions and gather responses
 Represent data with objects and drawings where one object or drawing represents one data value. Describe the displays

AUSVELS: SOME CONTENT DESCRIPTIONS
Year 2
 Identify practical activities and everyday events that involve chance. Describe outcomes as ‘likely’ or
‘unlikely’ and identify some events as ‘certain’ or
‘impossible’
 Identify a question of interest based on one categorical variable. Gather data relevant to the question
 Collect, check and classify data
 Create displays of data using lists, table and picture graphs and interpret them

AUSVELS: SOME CONTENT DESCRIPTIONS
Year 4
 Describe possible everyday events and order their chances of occurring
 Identify everyday events where one cannot happen if the other happens
 Identify events where the chance of one will not be affected by the occurrence of the other
 Select and trial methods for data collection, including survey questions and recording sheets
 Construct suitable data displays, with and without the use of digital technologies, from given or collected data. Include tables, column graphs and picture graphs where one picture can represent many data values  Evaluate the effectiveness of different displays in illustrating data features including variability

AUSVELS: SOME CONTENT DESCRIPTIONS
Year 6
 Describe probabilities using fractions, decimals and percentages  Conduct chance experiments with both small and large numbers of trials using appropriate digital technologies
 Compare observed frequencies across experiments with expected frequencies
 Interpret and compare a range of data displays, including sidebyside column graphs for two categorical variables
 Interpret secondary data presented in digital media and elsewhere WHAT IS STATISTICS AND PROBABILITY?
Statistics and probability initially develop in parallel.
Progressively the curriculum builds the links between them.
Students recognise and analyse data and draw inferences. They represent, summarise and interpret data and undertake purposeful investigations involving the collection and interpretation of data. They assess likelihood and assign probabilities using experimental and theoretical approaches.
They critique the use of chance and data concepts and make reasoned judgments and decisions.
They
develop an increasingly sophisticated ability to critically evaluate chance and data concepts and make reasoned judgments and decisions.
They develop an increasingly sophisticated ability to critically evaluate statistical information and build intuitions about data.
Draft National Mathematics Curriculum 2010

8

WHAT IS STATISTICS AND PROBABILITY?
The Measurement, chance and data dimension focuses on developing students’ understanding of unit, measure and error, chance and likelihood and inference. Measure is based on the notion of unit (informal, formal and standard) and relates number and natural language to measuring characteristics or attributes of objects and/or events. Various technologies are used to measure, and all measurement involves error.
VELS

9

Which graph matches each
Australian capital city? WORK WITH
A PARTNER

10

BIG IDEAS OF PROBABILITY
 Chance has no memory!
 Probability of an event can be placed on a continuum from impossible to certain
 Probability is assigned a number between 0 and 1
