"French Fry Frenzy"; adapted from Investigations in Math, Frank Schaffer Publications, Inc.

Length of Lesson:

Introduction and Skill Builder- 1.5 class periods
Collect french fry data- 2 weeks (outside class)
Teacher to tally results- 2 hours
Complete class data sheet
Construct triple bar graph
Write a short paragraph

OVERVIEW OF LESSONS

     Students will use mathematical data collected about french fries from fast food restaurants to determine which restaurant has the best deal on an order of fries. Students will construct bar graphs representing the data, and write a paragraph to explain whose fries are the best deal.

     Before this lesson began, I took a survey to determine which fast food restaurants we would visit, what size fries we would get, and how long to do the fry surveys. It was determined that we would visit McDonald's, Wendy's, and Rally's. Students would buy the largest size fries, and they would have two weeks to complete the surveys.

INTRODUCTION OF LESSON

     "Which fry is the best buy" transparency put on overhead.(attachment 1) As a class we discussed how we could determine this. Some categories which were brought up by students were: taste, greasiness, most fries, popularity of restaurant, location of restaurant, hottest, cheapest, and size of fries.

     We discussed the difficulties of determining the best fries considering the above catagories. I then expanded on the notion of most fries. We talked about whose fries were heaviest. But that would be hard for us to measure unless we had access to quite a few scales.

     It was then mentioned that we could measure the fries and see whose were the longest and gave us the most for our money. So by now, many of the students clued in that this was the way we would determine which french fries were the best buy.

SKILL BUILDER

     I then gave each pair of students an order of "Shortie's Fries"(attachment 2). They were french fries cut out of goldenrod paper in lengths ranging from 1.5cm to 6cm.

     With this activity students got practice in making a tally chart recording the numbers and lengths of their fries. We also found the mode, range, median, total length, mean, and cm/1¢ of our french fries.

THE SURVEY

     Students were to visit McDonald's, Wendy's, and Rally's in the next two weeks and order the largest size fries. As they were eating the fries, they would record on the provided data sheet (attachment 3) the number of each length of fry they had in their order. Each student received three data sheets. During the next two weeks, students were frequently reminded to go out and eat french fries.

     At the end of the two weeks, I went through all of the tally sheets and compiled a single tally sheet for each resaurant.(attachment 4,5,6) We ended with 11 visits each to McDonald's and Wendy's, and 7 visits to Rally's. I was pleased with the number of visits.

ANALYZING THE DATA

     With the data from the three restaurants, we compiled the "Class Data Sheet"(Attachment 7) as a class. Students worked in groups of three on this.  Each student at the table worked on a different restaurant and shared the information at the table. We discussed each category as we completed the chart as to whether or not that category would be a good determination of whose french fries were the best buy.

WHOSE ARE BEST?

     After discussing all of the categories, it was decided that Wendy's french fries were the best deal because they were cheaper than Rally's, and we got more centimeters of fries for a penny.

     Many students still wanted to choose their favorite for whatever reason. So I had to reinforce the notion that we were only discussing best value.

VISUAL DISPLAYS

     Next the students made a bar graph representing the distribution of lengths of fries. We discussed how we could set up the graph. As a class, we set up the graph and I did serveral of the bars with the students. Then each student worked on his own graph.

     After the graph was completed each student had to write a paragraph on whose fries were the best value. They were to include facts in their paragraph to back up their statements. Both the graph and paragraph were then to be mounted on construction paper for a neat presentation.

Attachment 2: "Shorties" Fries
(Click to Zoom "Full Size")

Attachment 4: McDonald's Report
(Click to Zoom "Full Size")

Attachment 5: Wendy's Report
(Click to Zoom "Full Size")

Attachment 6: Rally's Report
(Click to Zoom "Full Size")