ABSTRACT
The collection of data became important as soon as people began to organise themselves into towns and cities and to develop an agrarian society. Data collection was important in early Middle Eastern cultures where rulers wanted to know their possessions. Data is represented using diagrams to make interpretation easier. Other types of diagrams may be used for particular purposes: line graphs, pie charts, Carroll diagrams, Venn diagrams and binary trees. Discrete data can also be numerical, for example, shoe size, the number of bedrooms in a house, the number of children in a family, etc. The data is numerical but only certain numeric values are possible. Young children in school can begin to employ techniques of the data handling process, in order to make sense of situations. This begins with sorting, organising and classifying data. At this stage children seem to be fascinated by rearranging their personal collections of cards and toys, according to their own questions and criteria.
