How to Make an Accurate Pie Chart by Hand

Learners will need some data. In the class, I will be using the colors found in a "Share Size" bag of M&Ms for my data. Students are welcome to do the same or similar, or they can bring data from a survey or science project they have completed. Data will need to be categorical in nature -- for example, a pie chart is not a good  way to represent "Seedling Growth Over Time" but it is a great way to represent "Types of Trees Found in a 1 Acre Plot of a Forest" (in which the "categories" are the names of the tree species and students' data would be the number of each type of tree found). Students should have approximately 5-8 categories in their data. 

A one-page data sheet will be provided and it includes a circle for making the pie chart. Learners can also elect to use a compass to draw a circle on another piece of paper, but they will need to be sure that the center of the circle is clearly and accurately marked. 

Other required materials are: a protractor, a calculator, a pencil and eraser, a ruler or other device for marking straight lines and a notebook or scratch paper. Learners will also need coloring materials -- markers, colored pencils, crayons, etc -- and they will need at least as many easily-differentiated colors as they have categories of their data.