Home > Lesson Planning Channel > Lesson Planning Archives > Health & Safety, Holidays > Lesson Planning Article

Back to Dental Health Lesson Plan

Subjects

• Arts & Humanities
  --Visual Arts
  
• Educational Technology
  
• Mathematics
  --Applied Math
  --Arithmetic
  --Statistics
  
• Health
  --Our Bodies
  

Grade

• K-2
• 3-5
  

Brief Description

Students collect data about favorite toothpastes and graph that data.

Objectives

Students will

• collect and compile data.
• use the data to create a graph that represents that data.
• answer questions about their graphs.

Keywords

data, toothpaste, dental health, dentist, graph, teeth, statistics, bar graph

Materials Needed

• My Survey: What Toothpaste Do You Use? work sheet.
• colored pencils or crayons

Lesson Plan

Present each student with a copy of the My Survey: What Toothpaste Do You Use? work sheet.

If you teach younger students, you might write the names of popular toothpastes on the tubes for students. (You might write brand names on four tubes and "Other" on the fifth tube.)

Older students will want to do the survey on their own and create the graph to reflect the survey data they gathered; they might even want to color the tubes on the graph to look like the actual toothpaste tubes.

Have students survey 15 of their friends to learn which toothpaste they use most often. They might survey their classmates or take the survey on the playground at lunchtime. (You probably do not want to have them survey family members, because members of many families will use the same toothpaste; that will throw off the data students collect.) Students should write down each respondent's name and his/her toothpaste of choice.

Once the data is collected, students compile it and color the graph to reflect the survey results.

Have students share their graphs. As students share their graphs, ask questions that require them to read their graphs. For example, you might ask, On your graph…

• do more people use Aquafresh or Arm & Hammer?
• which toothpaste is more popular -- Closeup or Pepsodent?
• how many more people use Crest than Colgate?
• how many people in all use either Mentadent or Ultrabrite?

Extend the Lesson Integrate technology by having students create their graphs using the free and easy-to-use Create a Graph tool. Or you might use that tool to compile and illustrate all the collected data.

Assessment

Lesson Plan Source

Education World

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

FINE ARTS: Visual Arts
GRADES K - 4
NA-VA.K-4.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
NA-VA.K-4.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines
GRADES 5 - 8
NA-VA.5-8.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
NA-VA.5-8.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines

MATHEMATICS: Number and Operations
GRADES Pre-K - 2
NM-NUM.PK-2.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems
NM-NUM.PK-2.2 Understand Meanings of Operations and How They Relate to One Another
NM-NUM.PK-2.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates
GRADES 3 - 5
NM-NUM.3-5.1 Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships Among Numbers, and Number Systems
NM-NUM.3-5.2 Understand Meanings of Operations and How They Relate to One Another
NM-NUM.3-5.3 Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates
MATHEMATICS: Data Analysis and Probability
GRADES Pre-K - 2
NM-DATA.PK-2.2 Select and Use Appropriate Statistical Methods to Analyze Data
GRADES 3 - 5
NM-DATA.3-5.2 Select and Use Appropriate Statistical Methods to Analyze Data

MATHEMATICS: Problem Solving
GRADES Pre-K - 12
NM-PROB.PK-12.1 Build New Mathematical Knowledge Through Problem Solving
NM-PROB.PK-12.2 Solve Problems That Arise in Mathematics and in Other Contexts
NM-PROB.PK-12.3 Apply and Adapt a Variety of Appropriate Strategies to Solve Problems
NM-PROB.PK-12.4 Monitor and Reflect on the Process of Mathematical Problem Solving

MATHEMATICS: Connections
GRADES Pre-K - 12
NM-CONN.PK-12.3 Recognize and Apply Mathematics in Contexts Outside of Mathematics

MATHEMATICS: Representation
GRADES Pre-K - 12
NM-REP.PK-12.1 Create and Use Representations to Organize, Record, and Communicate Mathematical Ideas

TECHNOLOGY
GRADES K - 12
NT.K-12.1 Basic Operations and Concepts
NT.K-12.3 Technology Productivity Tools

Click to return to this week's Lesson Planning article, Sink Your Teeth Into These Dental Health Month Lessons.

Education World®
Copyright © 2004 Education World