Personal Engagement
Several things came together to make this one of the best collaborative analytical activities I've done.
The kids were really into it since they were the actual source of data. The data were not numerical but came from their opinions, so there was a strong emotional connection with it. Because of that, there were few qualms about embarking on a critical mathematical thinking journey.
Since it was announced up front that their graphs would be on display for the whole school to see, it proved to be further incentive to do quality work.
It was clear to them that I took their responses seriously, and that their input mattered. This made for a large deposit in all of our emotional bank accounts.