6.SP.A.2: Center, spread, and shape

Also written as 6.SP.2

Understand that a set of data collected to answer a statistical question has a distribution which can be described by its center, spread, and overall shape.

In plain words: Students describe the distribution of a data set by its center, its spread, and its overall shape.

Quick picks

Common mistake: Describing only the center: two classes can both have a median score of 80, one with scores from 75 to 85 and one from 50 to 100.
Builds on: 6.SP.A.1Statistical questions
Leads to: 6.SP.A.3Center vs. variation 6.SP.B.5Summarizing data in context

Example Problems

What is the mean of the following numbers?

3, 3, 6, 6, 2

What is the median of the following numbers?

9, 8, 1, 8, 5

What is the mode of the following numbers?

3, 8, 12, 8, 6, 8, 1

Khan Academy Resources

Mean as the balancing point Clusters, gaps, & peaks in data distributions Reading box plots Shape of distributions Reading box plots Clusters, gaps, peaks & outliers Representing data Shapes of distributions

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