In preparation for the lesson, students will need to bring along an image of their pet. Those who do not own a pet, they can bring along an image of a pet they might like to own.

1. Pose the question to students: ‘What is the most common pet for students in the class?’
2. Invite students to respond to the following questions:
   • ‘How can we find out which animal is the most common pet for students in the class?’
   • ‘What do we need to do to find the answer?’
3. Encourage students to consider effective methods of collecting and usefully recording information by asking the following:
   • ‘Who needs to be asked?’
   • ‘What do we need to ask them?’
   • ‘How would we remember the information that we gather?’
   • ‘How should we collect the information so that we can remember it?’
4. Divide the class into small groups and provide time for each group to plan a method for collecting and recording the information.
5. Re-group and invite each group to share its ideas. Display the suggestions and name them Methods for Collecting Data.
6. Pose the question to students: ‘What is data?’
7. Use the ‘What is Data‘ PowerPoint provided to explain the term ‘data’:
   • Data can be numbers, images, text, sound.
   • When data is turned into information it can be used to make decisions.
   • Text and number data can be collected.
   • Data can be organised (put into groups) to make it meaningful.
8. Refer to the students’ ideas about collecting and recording data for their investigation about pets.
9. Discuss each group’s method of collecting data