| Function |
Purpose: this is when the participant explicitly states that the purpose of the graph is to align with the purpose of the task. |
P2: So the question is how temperature affects growth of bacteria. P4: We might be interested in taking a particular time point that we think is key and looking at the data for the groups at that time point, or we might sort of go the whole nine yards and [make] 5 separate plots. UGR2: Okay so we’re measuring how one bacteria type grows at two different temperatures, so we have the two different temperatures and there are three tubes for each temperature, and we have different times so you can see how it grows. |
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Graph choice: the participant is explicitly stating graph choice (i.e., bar, line, scatter) based on the data provided in the table. Participants may also interject their personal feelings or rely on their past experiences when contemplating between different graph types, their usage, and limitations. |
GS4: I could make a scatter plot and have different symbols for different temperatures and they have three replicates for each. UGR1: Okay I’m going to make a bar graph for the sake of comparison here. Actually I might want to change my mind about what I’m doing here. I think I’m going to change to a type of line graph. I don’t think the bars are going to be the best comparison for showing a time course of a single plant. UGNR4: I’m going to make a line graph to compare two different types of data in the same graph … I think it’s going to show best patterns of each. |
| Invention |
Graph construction: when the participant either verbalizes variables in the table to the axes on the graph or the data or explains how they are visualizing the data on the graph. |
P1: So what I’m going to do is because the dependent measure is number of cells, I’m going to put that on the y axis. GS3: So definitely the independent variable is time, as they call it, the x axis. UGR1: So it will be plants with 15 ml of water per day and the bar with the lines will be for the 5 ml treatment group. UGNR9: So generally when you have time you want to put that on the x axis. |
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Data type: the participant is explicitly making decisions about whether or not to plot raw data or plot manipulated data (i.e., average) or the number of graphs to use to properly convey the data. |
P5: Let’s start with the 15 ml [treatment]. What I would do is, since we have 3 points per time point I will try to get the average of the three. GS1: I would probably pull the replicates [together], although the math for this would be pretty bad in my head, and I would have to draw fake error bars. UGNR1: Well I might be able to make this into two graphs because it’ll be easier to see maybe ... or we could do the average of the three tubes. |
| Learning or reflection |
Data table: this is when the participant is making sense of the data provided in the data table as evidenced by summarizing the data and/or the variables presented. |
P5: Number of leaves, 2 different amounts of water and you have time on axis and you have for each amount of water from plants. Ok. So now I should create a graph of that. GS6: I’m looking at the time, the number of cells, three test tubes, temperature needs to go there, and so it’s at 22 degrees and 10 degrees Celsius, and as the time progresses we will see whether there is any growth of bacteria or not so at 22 degrees I see there is growth and at 10 degrees there is not as much. UGR1: Okay so measurements of the number of leaves are taken every thirty hours for up to 120 hours. Looks like they have three plants in each treatment group. UGNR1: So we are doing this at 22 degrees Celsius and 10 degrees Celsius. |
