USING TECHNOLOGY IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF BOX PLOTS

Box plots (or box-and-whisker-plots) can be used as a powerful tool for visualising sets of data values. Nevertheless, the information conveyed in the representation of a box plot is restricted to certain aspects. In this paper, we discuss both the potential and limitations of box plots. We also present a design for an empirical study in which the use of a variety of tasks explicitly addresses this duality. The activities used in the study are based on an interactive box plot applet that surpasses the currently available tools and offers new ways of experiencing box plots.