1. Topic-
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| And You Thought Gasoline Was Expensive! |
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2. Content-
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Students create charts comparing the cost of a gallon of gasoline
to gallons of
other liquids -- mouthwash, house paint, fruit juice, and white-out,
for example.
Calculate, COLA, cost of living, economics, equation, gallon, gasoline,
inflation,
liquid, measure, measurement, pint. |
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3. Goals: Aims/Outcomes-
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Involve students with the use of technology to:
1. Compare different themes with their country with others.
2. Learn how to create graph using a website.
3. Develop analysis of data. |
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4. Objectives-
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Students will
1. Research the cost of a gallon of gasoline.
2. Calculate the costs of gallons of a variety of liquids.
3. Create charts showing the data they collect.
4. Discuss the data.
5. Use software or a free online tool to create graphs comparing the
costs of a
gallon of gasoline with that of five other liquids.
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5. Materials and Aids-
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1. Ads from food, drug, auto parts, and/or home building supply
stores.
2. Graph creation software or access to the online Create a Graph
tool. |
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6. Procedures/Methods-
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A. Introduction-
Have your students considered that gasoline might be a bargain when
compared
with the price of other liquids they consume? Take bottled water,
for example. A
16-ounce bottle of water costing $1.09 works out to $8.72 a gallon.
That makes
gasoline look like a real bargain!
Of course, buying a gallon of water is usually cheaper than buying
eight 16-
ounce bottles of water; but for the purpose of illustration, the bottled
water
example puts the cost of gasoline in perspective. |
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B. Development-
Students can do this activity individually or in small groups, in
class or for
homework. For an in-class activity, you might:
1. Provide students with newspaper ads from food, drug, auto parts
and/or
home supply stores so they can price a gallon of a variety of liquids,
such as
fruit drinks, house paint, mouthwash, auto engine oil, perfume, white-out,
and
so on.
2. Have students create charts with four columns: Liquid Product,
Cost of
Item, Size (Volume) of Item, Price per Gallon.
3. In the first row of the charts, students record the cost of a gallon
of
gasoline. In the remaining rows, students enter the information gleaned
from
the ads for a variety of other liquids.
4. Next have students use the cost of each of the other products on
the chart
to calculate the cost for a gallon of the product. (With younger students,
these
calculations could be done as a whole-class activity. |
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C. Practice-
When they complete the activity, students should share the information
they
collected and discuss the cost of a gallon of gasoline relative to
the cost of some
other things they might purchase. |
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D. Independent Practice-
Students can use the data they collect to create bar graphs
providing a visual representation of the data. They can use art supplies,
available software programs, or the free online Create a Graphtool
to create the graph. |
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E. Accommodations (Differentiated Instruction)-
1. Make the table with four columns: Liquid Product, Cost of Item,
Size (Volume) of Item, Price per Gallon.
2. Look and save photos of the products of different countries with
the prices.
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F. Checking for understanding-
| Grade students' chart calculations on mathematical accuracy. |
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G. Closure-
| Students should be able to complete the chart and make a graph with
the obtained data. |
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7. Evaluation-
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1. See if the charts are done such it is written in the instructions.
2. Compare the data in the chart with the graph, to check if it has
the same information.
3. Students should make an analysis of their results, specifying with
country have the products with less cost. |
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