TinkerPlots

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Data exploration software

title: "TinkerPlots" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["exploratory-data-analysis", "plotting-software", "educational-software"] description: "Data exploration software" topic_path: "general/exploratory-data-analysis" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TinkerPlots" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Data exploration software ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]

FieldValue
nameTinkerPlots
[[File:Tinkerplots2logo.jpegthumbnail Alignment
captionWindows GUI
developerClifford Konold and Craig D. Miller
latest_release_version3.0.36
latest_release_dateOctober 2023
operating_systemMac OS X, Windows
genreEducational software
licenseProprietary
websiteOfficial website
::

| name = TinkerPlots | logo = ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Tinkerplots2logo.jpeg" caption="thumbnail Alignment="Middle""] ::

| screenshot = | caption = Windows GUI | developer = Clifford Konold and Craig D. Miller | latest_release_version = 3.0.36 | latest_release_date = October 2023 | operating_system = Mac OS X, Windows | genre = Educational software | license = Proprietary | website = Official website

TinkerPlots is exploratory data analysis and modeling software designed for use by students in grades 4 through university. It was designed by Clifford Konold and Craig Miller at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is currently published by Learn Troop. It runs on Windows XP or later and Mac OS 10.4 or later. The program allows users to enter their own data, to import them from other applications or the Web, or to generate them using a sampling engine. The program also comes with 50 multivariate data sets.

Using TinkerPlots, students can make a large variety of graphs, including those specified for middle school in Common Core State Standards for Mathematics But rather than making these graphs directly using commands, students construct them by progressively organizing cases using basic operations including “stack,” “order,” and “separate.” Responding to these operations, case icons animate into different screen positions. The interface was based on observations of people organizing “data cards” on a table to make graphs to answer specific questions

Innovations of TinkerPlots include using a superimposed color gradient to detect covariation in two numeric attributes and a “hat plot,” a reformulated and generalized version of the box plot.

The latest version is 3.0.37. This version does not have substantively different features from versions 2.1, 2.2 or 2.3, but is a complete re-write in a code sense, and has a number of bug fixes and enhancements to remain compatible with the latest versions of Windows and MacOS.

References

Additional References

  • Bakker, A., Derry, J., & Konold, C. (2006). Using technology to support diagrammatic reasoning about center and variation. In A. Rossman & B. Chance (Eds.) Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS) CD-ROM. Salvador, Bahai, Brazil, July 2–7, 2006.
  • Konold, C., & Lehrer, R. (in press). Technology and mathematics education: An essay in honor of Jim Kaput. In L. English (Ed.), Handbook of International Research in Mathematics Education, (2nd edition). New York: Routledge.
  • Rubin, A., Hammerman, J., & Konold, C. (2006). Exploring informal inference with interactive visualization software. In A. Rossman & B. Chance (Eds.) Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS) CD-ROM. Salvador, Bahai, Brazil, July 2–7, 2006.

Educational Materials using TinkerPlots

References

  1. "TinkerPlots Overview | Scientific Reasoning Research Institute".
  2. "TinkerPlots: Release History".
  3. "TinkerPlots: System Requirements".
  4. Harradine, A., & Konold, C. (2006). How representational medium affects the data displays students make. In A. Rossman & B. Chance (Eds.) ''Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Teaching Statistics'' (ICOTS) CD-ROM. Salvador, Bahai, Brazil, July 2–7, 2006.
  5. (2002). "Teaching concepts rather than conventions". New England Journal of Mathematics.
  6. Konold, C. (2007). Designing a data tool for learners. In M. Lovett & P. Shah (Eds.), ''Thinking with data'' (pp. 267-291). New York: Taylor & Francis.
  7. "TinkerPlots: Get TinkerPlots 3.0".
  8. "TinkerPlots: Release History".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

exploratory-data-analysisplotting-softwareeducational-software