How Data Puzzles Support Teachers
The Data Puzzles project supports teachers by providing a “Pedagogical Content Knowledge Guide” for each of the student data-using activities in the book. “Pedagogical content knowledge” or PCK is knowledge of how to teach something, as opposed to knowledge of the content itself. Data Puzzle PCK Guides focus on four kinds of critical thinking: spatial/visual reasoning, temporal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and concept-based reasoning. The figure below shows a synopsis of one of the Data Puzzles, Is the Hudson Too Salty to Drink?, which has been annotated to show where each type of reasoning is called into play.
[click on image to enlarge]
The table below shows a portion of the the Step-by-Step Solution part of the PCK Guide for Is the Hudson River Too Salty to Drink? The left-hand side of the table shows each question of the puzzle together with a fully correct answer. The right-hand side of the table shows the critical-thinking processes that would be required to construct the correct answer. The thought processes are coded according to the type of thinking, with (S) for spatial/visual reasoning, (T) for temporal reasoning, (Q) for quantitative reasoning, and (C) for concept-based reasoning.
| Answer Key | Critical Thinking |
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(6c) Compare and contrast the salt front location for the two time intervals plotted. Be sure to use river miles and mention specific communities in your response. The salt front in August/September remained fairly consistent, moving only between RM 62 and RM 73 (approximately Newburgh to Poughkeepsie). In March/April the salt front is pushed closer to the ocean. Also, in March/April the location is more variable than for August/September, ranging from RM 68 (north of Newburgh) all the way down to RM 0 at the southern tip of Manhattan. |
(S)(T) Students interpret the position versus time graph in terms of:
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