Question

A teacher drew a line segment that was 20 inches long on the blackboard. She asked each of her students to estimate the length of the segment and used their estimates to draw this dot plot. Were students generally accurate (correct) in their estimates of the length of the line? Explain your reasoning.

Answer 1

1. 18

2. Responses vary. Sample response: Students tended to underestimate thelength of the line, with more than half giving an estimate that was smallerthan the actual length of 20. No one overestimated by more than 1 inch, butsome students underestimated by as much as 3 or 4 inches.

Answer 2

Yes

Explanation:

19, 20, and 21 inches are all pretty close to each other. It appears that the majority of the students chose these answers. Only five people chose 16, 17, and 18. 13 chose the answers around 20.