Median, mode, and range word problems, step by step
Once a child can find the median, mode, and range of a list, the next step is reading the list out of a situation.
The question
What is the mode?
Across five weeks one summer, a garden grew 16, 19, 16, 26 and 18 tomatoes.
16 appears more often than any other value
16 appears more often than any other value
the mode is 16.
16 tomatoes
- Read it through once. The deliverable here is an EQUATION written with x, not just a number — so turn the story into one before solving it.
- Let x stand for the unknown the story is about. Writing what the story says as an equation: 16 appears more often than any other value.
- Now solve it: the mode is 16.. The equation was what the question asked you to write; the number then answers it, in tomatoes.
How it works.
- 01
Read it through once. The deliverable here is an EQUATION written with x, not just a number — so turn the story into one before solving it.
- 02
Let x stand for the unknown the story is about. Writing what the story says as an equation: 16 appears more often than any other value.
- 03
Now solve it: the mode is 16.. The equation was what the question asked you to write; the number then answers it, in tomatoes.