The public has long been fascinated with cemeteries. This program will make use of this fascination to engage the students while they learn. Cemeteries can be primary sources of information for much more than just social studies. This program will make use of the information available in local cemeteries to meet aspects of the mathematics curriculum. This lesson will also cover aspects of the health and physical education curriculum as it includes a walking tour of a local cemetery.

Students will collect primary data found on the headstones and organize the data. Students will make use of a variety of methods to organize and display the data collected, such as tally charts and frequency tables.

The students will analyze the data using the different methods of central tendency and identify and describe trends in graphs.

Ontario Curriculum, 1 – 8 Mathematics.
1) Data Management and Probability: Grade 7
2) Data Management and Probability: Grade 8

1. Pre-field trip discussion.

Before heading to the cemetery, teachers should discuss with the students cemetery safety and respect. Remember, this is a cemetery and there may be grieving people visiting graves of relatives. If you are visiting a cemetery with older headstones, students must be made aware of the fragile nature of the stones and that they could topple over onto a student if they are touched without care. Handout the work sheets to each student and review with the necessary information they will need to collect to complete the work sheets.

Of note, most cemeteries no longer allow stone rubbings as this damages stones and could cause the stone to topple over. If you wish to have your students make stone rubbings contact the cemetery prior to the trip to determine if this is permitted.

2. Field Trip

Divide the students into small groups of 3 –

4. Have the students make their way through the cemetery gathering the necessary information to complete the worksheet. Remind the students of the fragile nature of the older headstones and that they are not to write on the headstones.
Perhaps there is someone associated with the cemetery available to provide a brief guided tour of some of the areas of the cemetery. Research this possibility when arranging the trip.

3. Post-field trip discussion.

Marked worksheets are handed back to the students and the answers are discussed.

Cemetery Math Worksheet

1. Pick one headstone to be the primary headstone. Record the name, date of birth and date of death for the primary headstone.



2. Starting at the primary headstone, examine 20 headstones within 10 metre radius. This will be quadrant one. Record the name, date of birth and date of death for these headstones using a tally chart.




3. Starting at the primary headstone, examine 20 headstones that are located beyond the 10 metre radius but no farther than a 20 metre radius. This will be quadrant two. Record the name, date of birth and date of death for these headstones using a tally chart.



4. Move to a new section, away from the primary headstone and not within quadrant one or two. This will be quadrant three. Record the name, date of birth and date of death for these headstones using a tally chart.




5. Find the mean, median and mode of the birth dates and the death dates of the headstones in quadrant one.




6. Find the mean, median and mode of the birth dates and the death dates of the headstones in quadrant two.




7. Find the mean, median and mode of the birth dates and the death dates of the headstones in quadrant three.




8. Graph the results of questions 5 – 7 using a bar graph.




9. Evaluate the results and analyze the results of the graph. What can it tell you about the population of the City? What is the average age at death?




10. Using the data collected, create a frequency distribution to illustrate the frequency of deaths per decade.




11. What could the results tell you about events going on in the City during those years? Use the results of the frequency distribution to support your statement.