The Flu

(Graphing Data and Seeing Patterns)

Every year, the elementary and high school schools in Hometown have been hit by a
severe outbreak of influenza. The board of education is interested in taking action to
lessen the annual impacts of the flu. Several policies have been proposed:
losing the school before the flu virus reaches a peak
!roviding free vaccinations to teachers residing in the school district
!rovide free vaccinations to children residing in the school district
"r doing nothing
#ny of these options could prove costly both in real dollars and in terms of teacher or
student time missed from school. $n addition, the vaccinations are known to have some
adverse side effects for some portion of the population. $t has proven medically that this
particular flu strain last for % days.
&efore making a decision on how to deal with their annual flu crises, the &oard decided
to gather some data concerning the severity and timing of the problem. 'nfortunately, the
board discovered that no systematic records of the severity of the flu have been kept on a
system(wide basis. The only available records are those of )rs. Stewart, the school nurse
at the )aplewood School. Early in September, she began to notice that many students
were staying home from school. *hen they returned, they said that they had the flu.
&eing a conscientious nurse, )rs. Stewart had kept a careful record of recoveries shown
in the table below.
Date Number of Recoveries Date Number of Recoveries
Sept + , Sept. -% ./
% , -0 +
0 . -1 2
1 2 -/ 2
/ 0 -3 -
.. %% "ct. - %
.- 21 2 .
.2 23 + .
.+ 2/ % .
.% 2/ 0 .
./ 1+ 3 2
.3 .1 ., ,
-, .+ .. ,
-. .. .- ,
-- 3 .2 ,
*hile it looks as if a large number of students recovered from the flu between September
.. and September ./, it is hard to see a clear pattern in these figures. !reviously,
converting data from a table into a graph made it clearer. However, in this case, the graph
will show peaks. *hy do these peaks occur4 *hy was the number of students returning
to school on September ./ so high4
The number of students recorded on that day, as having recovered from flu is 1+, which is
significantly higher than the number recorded 5ust before or after September ./. "nly .1
students are marked as having recovered on September .3. How many are listed as
recovered for the day before the peak4
The table above does not show any information for either September .0 and .1. This
seems odd, but it does not e6plain the peak at September ./. There could be other
missing information in table above.
7uide 8uestions:
.. How should data have been collected4
-. *hy is the data when graphed appeared distorted4 7ive e6planations and cases
where this can happen.
2. How should the data appear when the missing information is supplied4 !erform
an ad5ustment on the data of recoveries.
+. *hen did the students contract the flu4
%. *hat was the total number of students sick with the flu4 ompute the total
number of sick persons for each day of the flu epidemic. !lot the total number of
persons sick for each day.
0. *hen did the ma6imum number of sick persons occur4 *hat happened on the
same day that the ma6imum number of persons was sick4 E6plain why.
1. How many students got sick with the flu each day4
/. How should the board address the problem4 7ive recommendations and their
5ustifications.