Bar charts

• Mathematics
• Primary Education

Bar charts

Reading, interpreting and drawing bar charts 

Reading scales on charts and identifying what smaller divisions are worth

• When interpreting a graph, look at the scale on the vertical axis. 
• What are the numbers marked going up in (or increasing by)?
• The numbers marked may have divisions marked between them.
• Work out what each division is worth by dividing the steps the scale is going up in by the number of divisions. 
• In this example we divide 10 by the 10 divisions and each small division is worth 1. 

Another example

• What are the numbers marked going up in (or increasing by)?
• How many divisions are there between the marked numbers?
• What is each division worth?
• 50 divided by the 10 divisions is 5
• So each smaller box/division is worth 5. 

Making comments

• Recommended daily intake is what children should be eating every day
• Average daily intake is what they are actually eating
• Children are consuming more sugar, fat, salt than is recommended. 
• Children are are consuming less fruit and vegetables, oily fish and fibre than is recommended. 

How confident do you feel making evaluative comments on bar charts?

😒🙁😐🙂😃

Final learning objective

• Draw a bar chart and reflect on how many marks you would have gathered
• Look at the image: what is needed for a bar chart?

What is needed when drawing a bar chart?