Plop It!: Warm-Up

It's always a good idea to "warm up" or acquaint yourself with a new software tool before using it with an activity. If you feel comfortable exploring the buttons and features on your own, feel free to do that. If you prefer a more structured exploration, try the activities below.

Note Plop It! opens in a new browser window. As you explore the software, keep this window open for reference.

Warm Up with Plop It!

Click to open Plop It! and then take a few minutes to get acquainted with its functions. Once you've experimented with the buttons, try the activities below:

1. Click the graph to add data elements. What do the numbers on the horizontal scale mean? How about the numbers on the vertical scale?
2. Click the Remove Block option at the top right corner of the screen. Then click individual blocks to remove data elements.
   
   Watch what happens to the mean, median, and mode as you add or remove blocks. What do these values tell you about the data?
3. Click the Show Stats button. A box appears with specific information about the mean, median, and mode.
4. Look at the Update Graph box. What do the values inside the box represent?
   
   To clear the screen, click the Clear button and then the Update Graph button.
5. Experiment with the buttons at the top of the screen (for Decreasing and Increasing the X- and Y-ranges). What happens?

Thanks to The Shodor Foundation for the use of Plop It! in Seeing Math