Prize-Winning Pumpkin Weights

The Great Pumpkin: Weight of Select World-Record Pumpkins
graph from Dynamath; slow reveal by Jenna Laib
– handout/follow-up activity –

(Slide deck includes notes and questions to elicit discourse)
(Handout includes follow-up activity for students.)

Type of Graph: bar graph

Visualization Source: DynaMath, “Creepy Carvings and Data.” (October 2020)

Data Source: GiantPumpkin.com

Paired Texts and Sites:

• GiantPumpkin.com — check out the data here!
• BigPumpkins.com
• Rothman, Lily. “The Great Pumpkin Race: Inside the world of farmers and dreamers who live to grow giant gourds.”
• Rothman, Lily. “The Culture.” Time Magazine, October 16, 2014.
• Umholtz, Katelyn. “Giant pumpkin grown in Mattapan community garden draws attention at Vermont weigh-in.” The Boston Globe, September 20, 2023.

Potential Math Content: bar graphs, estimating values, understanding categories along the x-axis, scale along the y-axis

Potential Content Connections: seasonal, agricultural, geography, weather (why was 2015 omitted?)