ABSTRACT
Target Statistics focuses on the mean, median, and range of a set of data in a way that deepens conceptual understanding. Players use a standard deck of playing cards with the face cards removed and aces representing ones. Teams privately decide the statistic under which to write each number, before the next card is shown. Decisions may not be changed. The students in one sixth-grade class have learned about the meanings of median, mean, and range and how each statistic is computed, but have not yet had an opportunity to manipulate data in order to create a statistic. When the students come back together, the teacher asks for volunteers to come to the board to put the numbers in the correct places. Eighth graders could make a frequency table to solve this puzzle, while many seventh graders and some sixth graders could solve it through proportional reasoning.
