These two activities adapted from the Open Up Resource listed below to explore diagrams that represent finding the mean as a process of leveling out the data to find a “fair share.”

For more ideas about how to use this activity, you can check out the lesson plans they were inspired by at Open Up Resources. (To gain access, you will need to set up a free teacher account)

• For the full lesson plan exploring mean as equal sharing, see Open Up Resource: 6th Grade, Unit 8, Lesson 9: Interpreting Mean as Fair Share

Another interpretation of mean is as a balance point in a data set. For a lesson plan exploring this model, see Open Up Resources: 6th Grade, Unit 8, Lesson 10: Finding and Interpreting the Mean as the Balance Point