NCERT Book Class 6 Maths Data Handling and Presentation PDF Download

Chapter 4: Data Handling and Presentation

If you ask your classmates about their favourite colours, you will get a list of colours. This list is an example of data. Similarly, if you measure the weight of each student in your class, you would get a collection of measures of weight - again data.

Any collection of facts, numbers, measures, observations or other descriptions of things that convey information about those things is called data.

We live in an age of information. We constantly see large amounts of data presented to us in new and interesting ways. In this chapter, we will explore some of the ways that data is presented, and how we can use some of those ways to correctly display, interpret and make inferences from such data!

4.1 Collecting and Organising Data

Navya and Naresh are discussing their favourite games.

[Figure: Navya and Naresh discussing games, See in your textbook]

To figure out the most popular game in their class, what should Navya and Naresh do? Can you help them?

Naresh and Navya decided to go to each student in the class and ask what their favourite game is. Then they prepared a list.

Navya is showing the list:

She says (happily), "I have collected the data. I can figure out the most popular game now!".

A few other children are looking at the list and wondering, "We can't yet see the most popular game. How can we get it from this list?".

Figure it Out

1. What would you do to find the most popular game among Naresh's and Navya's classmates?
2. What is the most popular game in their class?
3. Try to find out the most popular game among your classmates.
4. Pari wants to respond to the questions given below. Put a tick (\( \checkmark \)) for the questions where she needs to carry out data collection and put a cross (\( \times \)) for the questions where she doesn't need to collect data. Discuss your answers in the classroom.
   • a. What is the most popular TV show among her classmates?
   • b. When did India get independence?
   • c. How much water is getting wasted in her locality?
   • d. What is the capital of India?

Teacher's Note

Look at the list carefully. Do not just read through it once and assume you know the answer. Tally up each game by going through the list systematically - go down, not across. This method stops you from missing a name or counting someone twice. This is exactly what you need to do in exams when you have raw data: organise it first, then interpret it.

Shri Nilesh is a teacher. He decided to bring sweets to the class to celebrate the new year. The sweets shop nearby has jalebi, gulab jamun, gujiya, barfi, and rasgulla. He wanted to know the choices of the children. He wrote the names of the sweets on the board and asked each child to tell him their preference. He put a tally mark '|' for each student and when the count reached 5, he put a line through the previous four and marked it as \( \cancel{||||} \).

Figure it Out

1. Complete the table to help Shri Nilesh to purchase the correct numbers of sweets:
   • a. How many students chose jalebi?
   • b. Barfi was chosen by ____________ students?
   • c. How many students chose gujiya?
   • d. Rasgulla was chosen by ____________ students?
   • e. How many students chose gulab jamun?

Teacher's Note

When reading tally marks, remember: one crossed-out group of four marks plus any loose marks equals the total. So \( \cancel{||||} \) || means 5 + 2 = 7, not 5 + 1. Count the complete crossed groups first, then add the single marks. This is the fastest way and is less likely to trip you up in an exam.

Key Points

• Data is any collection of facts, numbers, measures, or observations that tell us information about something.
• To find patterns in raw data (like an unorganised list of names and games), you need to count and organise it first - do not try to interpret it directly.
• Tally marks are a quick way to count and record data: mark one line for each item, and cross out every group of four with a fifth line to make bundles of 5, which are easier to count.

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