TinkerPlots

Infobox_Software
name = TinkerPlots



caption = Windows GUI
developer = Clifford Konold and Craig Miller
latest_release_version = 1.0
latest_release_date = September 2005
operating_system = Mac OS X, Windows
genre = Educational software
license = Proprietary
website = [http://www.keypress.com/tinkerplots/ Official website]

"TinkerPlots" is exploratory data analysis software designed for use by students in grades 4-8. It was designed by Clifford Konold and Craig Miller at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is published by Key Curriculum Press [http://www.keypress.com/] . It runs on Windows 98 or later and Mac OS 10.1 or later. The program allows users to enter their own data or to import them from other applications or the Web. The program also comes with 40 multivariate data sets.

Using TinkerPlots, students can make a large variety of graphs, including those specified for middle school in NCTM’s Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. But rather than making these graphs directly using commands, students construct them by progressively organizing cases using basic operations including “stack,” “order,” and “separate.” Responding to these operations, case icons animate into different screen positions. The interface was based on observations of people organizing “data cards” on a table to make graphs to answer specific questions [Harradine, A., & Konold, C. (2006). How representational medium affects the data displays students make. In A. Rossman & B. Chance (Eds.) "Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Teaching Statistics" (ICOTS) CD-ROM. Salvador, Bahai, Brazil, July 2-7, 2006.]

Innovations of TinkerPlots include using a superimposed color gradient [Konold, C. (2002). Teaching concepts rather than conventions. "New England Journal of Mathematics", "34(2)", 69-81.] to detect covariation in two numeric attributes and a “hat plot,” [Konold, C. (2007). Designing a data tool for learners. In M. Lovett & P. Shah (Eds.), "Thinking with data" (pp. 267-291). New York: Taylor & Francis. ] a reformulated and generalized version of the box plot.

Critical acclaim

* [http://www.parents-choice.org/product.cfm?product_id=17415&award=AW&from=Award%20Winners%20:%20Software&urllist=17425,17484,17618,17460,17415,17406,17482,17615,17359,17370,17483,17387,17417,17358&fromurl=get_direct_level.cfm?cat=c_sof&award=AW&awdyr=2005&awdse=a&product_code=p_sof/ Parents' Choice Silver Honor, 2005]
* [http://www.techlearning.com/content/contest/awards/2005/index.php/ Technology & Learning's Award of Excellence, 2005]

References

Additional References

*Bakker, A., Derry, J., & Konold, C. (2006). Using technology to support diagrammatic reasoning about center and variation. In A. Rossman & B. Chance (Eds.) "Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Teaching Statistics" (ICOTS) CD-ROM. Salvador, Bahai, Brazil, July 2-7, 2006.
*Friel, S. (2002). Wooden or steal roller coasters: What’s the choice? "New England Journal of Mathematics", "34", 40-54.
*Hoyles, C., Bakker, A., Kent, P., & Noss, R. (2007). Attributing meanings to representations of data: The case of statistical process control. "Mathematical Thinking and Learning", "9(4)", 331-360.
*Konold, C., & Lehrer, R. (in press). Technology and mathematics education: An essay in honor of Jim Kaput. In L. English (Ed.), "Handbook of International Research in Mathematics Education", (2nd edition). New York: Routledge.
*Rubin, A. (2007). Much has changed; little has changed: Revisiting the role of technology in statistics education 1992-2007. "Technology Innovations in Statistics Education", "1(1)", Article 6.
*Rubin, A., Hammerman, J., & Konold, C. (2006). Exploring informal inference with interactive visualization software. In A. Rossman & B. Chance (Eds.) "Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Teaching Statistics" (ICOTS) CD-ROM. Salvador, Bahai, Brazil, July 2-7, 2006.

Educational Materials using TinkerPlots

*Konold, C. (2005). "Exploring Data with TinkerPlots". Key Curriculum Press, ISBN 1-55953-750-7. Contents: Getting Started, Learning TinkerPlots, Teaching with TinkerPlots, Activities, Activity Notes. [http://www.keypress.com/x18150.xml]
*Brodesky, A., Doherty, A., & Stoddard, J. (2008). "Digging into Data with TinkerPlots." Key Curriculum Press, 225 pp. ISBN 978-1-55953-885-5. Contents: (1) Comparisons, Distributions, and Line Plots: Exploring Data about Cats, (2) Comparisons and Boxplots: Investigating Data about Middle-School Students, (3) Comparisons using Formulas: Investigating Data about Signatures and Words, (4) Measures of Center and Histograms: Analyzing Safety Data, (5) Relationships between Attributes and Scatter Plots: Investigating Sports Data. [http://www.keypress.com/x17494.xml]
* Walsh, T. (2009). "The Survey Toolkit: Collecting Information, Analyzing Data, and Writing Reports." Contents: Choosing a Research Question, Developing and Giving the Survey, Analyzing Survey Data, Sharing Results. 112pp. ISBN 978-1-55953-886-2. [http://www.keypress.com/x22092.xml]
* TinkerPlots Instructional Movies (2004). These 5 short movies where developed by the [http://www.umass.edu/srri/serg/ Statistics Education Research Group] in 2004, and published with TinkerPlots, in Quicktime and AVI format. Titles: TinkerPlots Basics, Adding Data, Making Common Graphs, Comparing Groups, Exploring Relationships. [http://www.keypress.com/x4164.xml]
* TinkerPlots "Workshop Guide" (2007). ISBN 978-1-55953-961-6. [http://www.keypress.com/x20058.xml]
* TinkerPlots "Walkthrough Guide" and "Quick Reference Card" (included in [http://www.keypress.com/x17679.xml Instructors Evaluation Edition] ).

External links

* [http://www.keypress.com/tinkerplots/ Official TinkerPlots web site]
* [http://srri.umass.edu/tinkerplots/ TinkerPlots site] at University of Massachusetts Amherst