Learning About Nutrition Using the TI-73 and the Web

Students in the middle grades need to be exposed to real world problems which show the appropriate use of the math they "see" in school. In order to provide student with these types of problems, teachers and students need to know some information about different subjects. Therefore, this module starts off with a "Warm Up!" The warm up takes teachers and students to web pages that will expose them to The Food Pyramid, Nutrition Labels and more. Next, a Nutrition Label from a deep dish pizza will be analyzed using fractions, decimals and percent. The information will be tabulated on the TI-73 using the LIST features. The information will also be displayed using pie charts on the TI-73. Students will compare what they eat with the Recommended Daily Value from the Food and Drug Administration. The final activity has students create breakfast, lunch and dinner from fast food information on the web. They will again analyze the energy value of the food and compare it with the Recommended Daily Value from the Food and Drug Administration. Finally, a TI-73 program is provided to automatically analyze their meals for further discussion of their nutritional habits.

Concepts:

• Fractions
• Percent
• Representation of data using pie charts.
• Calculator skills: Category Lists, TEXT, LIST, STAT, PLOT, PRGM

Materials:

• TI-73 Calculators
• Web access to find information about nutrition.
  This module is best viewed and printed using Internet Explorer and a white background.
• Low Tech: Use nutrition labels from various foods and from fast food restaurants and follow along with the activity.

Activities: Click on each activity to get to the lesson.

1. Warm Up! Getting Familiar with the Vocabulary of Nutrition
2. Let's Eat Pizza - Analyze the Nutrition Label for a Deep Dish Pizza!
Part 1: Let's Eat Pizza!
Part 2: Analyze a Slice of Pizza Through the Eyes of the TI-73
3. Drive Thru Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner! What Nutrients Energize You?

Teacher Notes

Other Web Resources:

• Kids Food Cyber Club, http://www.kidfood.org/ has nice activities. These are geared to K-5 but they have a nice getting started on Internet searches and keeping track of your food activities.
• Food and Drug Administration Home Page, http://www.fda.gov/default.htm

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Copyright 1998 by Margo Lynn Mankus