Wealth of Nations (Updated!)

What does an ideal wealth distribution look like?

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Wealth of Nations (Updated!)

What does an ideal wealth distribution look like?

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Check it out! This lesson was just updated in September 2024, and we hope you love the new and improved version. If you've already prepped an earlier version, fear not, you can still find those here through Thursday December 5, 2024.

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2023-2024 Versions

In the fall of 2024, Citizen Math released updated versions of every lesson in our library, plus a few new ones! We know you may have already prepped an earlier version or planned a repeat of last year, so we're continuing to make these earlier versions available through Thursday December 5, 2024.

You can find the new lessons through the regular search, and we hope you love them as much as we do. You can read more about these updates in Our Community.

What does a fair wealth distribution look like? In the United States, 10% of families own more than 70% of the total wealth. In other places, though, the wealth distributions looks very different...for both good and ill.

Students use mean, median, histograms, and box-and-whisker plots to compare how wealth is distributed in different countries and debate the pros and cons of their ideal distribution.

REAL WORLD TAKEAWAYS

  • A country’s wealth distribution describes how much wealth is owned by different segments of the population.
  • Different countries can have different wealth distributions.
  • In the United States, the bottom 90% of wealth-owners own 26% of wealth while the top 10% own 74% of wealth. This distribution is different than what many Americans expect.
  • There are upsides and downsides to different wealth distributions.

MATH OBJECTIVES

  • Analyze an existing bar chart for a real-world situation; given real-world data, create a bar chart
  • Calculate the mean and median for a data set, and discuss which measure is more appropriate for a given situation
  • Interpret and create box-and-whisker plots

This complex task is best as a culminating unit activity after students have developed formal knowledge and conceptual understanding.
Grade 6
Data & Distributions
Grade 6
Data & Distributions
Content Standards 6.SP.3 Recognize that a measure of center for a numerical data set summarizes all of its values with a single number, while a measure of variation describes how its values vary with a single number. 6.SP.4 Display numerical data in plots on a number line, including dot plots, histograms, and box plots. 6.SP.5 Summarize numerical data sets in relation to their context, such as by: (a) Reporting the number of observations. (b) Describing the nature of the attribute under investigation, including how it was measured and its units of measurement. (c) Giving quantitative measures of center (median and/or mean) and variability (interquartile range and/or mean absolute deviation), as well as describing any overall pattern and any striking deviations from the overall pattern with reference to the context in which the data were gathered. (d) Relating the choice of measures of center and variability to the shape of the data distribution and the context in which the data were gathered.
Mathematical Practices MP.3 Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. MP.4 Model with mathematics.

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