We want to summarize the number of dogs our friends have into a single number. We will use the measures of center for this problem. Ashley has 1 dog, Steve has 1 dog, Jeff has 2 dogs, Kylie has 3 dogs, and Lisa has 8 dogs.

There is no measure of center that is always best, so we need to try all three to see what makes sense in this situation.

What is the mean, median, and mode for the number of dogs our friends have?

To summarize the number of dogs your friends have, we can calculate the mean, median, and mode.

### Mean
The mean is the average number of dogs.

1. Add up all the numbers of dogs:
   \( 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 8 = 15 \)

2. Divide by the number of friends:
   \[
   \text{Mean} = \frac{15}{5} = 3
   \]

### Median
The median is the middle value when the numbers are arranged in ascending order.

1. Arrange the numbers in ascending order:
   \( 1, 1, 2, 3, 8 \)

2. The middle value (3rd value) in this list is 2.

### Mode
The mode is the number that appears most frequently.

1. Identify the frequency of each number:
   - 1 appears 2 times
   - 2 appears 1 time
   - 3 appears 1 time
   - 8 appears 1 time

2. The mode is 1, as it appears most frequently.

### Summary
- **Mean**: 3
- **Median**: 2
- **Mode**: 1

These measures provide different perspectives:
- The **mean** reflects the average number of dogs.
- The **median** shows the middle point in the dataset.
- The **mode** highlights the most common number of dogs.

If you have any questions or need further details, feel free to ask!

Here are some related questions for further exploration:
1. How would the measures change if Lisa had 5 dogs instead of 8?
2. What if we included another friend with 2 dogs?
3. How does the presence of an outlier (like Lisa's 8 dogs) affect the mean?
4. Can we have multiple modes in a dataset? How would that affect the summary?
5. What if Kylie gets another dog, making her total 4 dogs?
6. How would the measures of center change if we doubled the number of dogs each person has?
7. What other measures of central tendency could be useful in summarizing this data?
8. How do the mean, median, and mode compare in larger datasets with more variation?

**Tip:** When dealing with outliers in your dataset, the median can often provide a more accurate measure of center than the mean.

Learn how to calculate the mean, median, and mode for the number of dogs your friends have. This problem covers measures of central tendency in statistics, including mean (average), median (middle value), and mode (most frequent value). Suitable for students in Grades 6-8.

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