Student Teacher: Jillian Gaglione

Topic:  Noise Levels, Bar Graphing, and Fractions

Grade Level: Middle School

Curriculum Standard: (2.6) “All students will learn and apply health-related fitness concepts.”  (4.12)  “All students develop an understanding of statistics and probability and will use them to describe sets of data, model situations, and support appropriate inferences and arguments.”  The first standard will be met because students will be learning about an important health issue, the affects of noise levels to the ears.  This lesson will inform students how to be aware of what is causing damage to their ears. The second standard will be met because students will be required to take statistics and use them to create a model or bar graph to display the data clearly.  This data will be real life data that is vital to their everyday life.  The students will also using the data to create fractions showing how many objects are safe to the ear, harmful, or can cause serious damage.

Anticipatory Set: To start the lesson, the teacher will begin with a discussion about objects we use in our everyday life that makes a lot of noise.  The teacher will be expecting answers such as the television, radio, hairdryer, etc.  The teacher will then explain to the students how certain noises can damage their hearing.  This will lead into the problem, which will provide students with a detailed list of statistics about the decibels in certain objects.  The students will be taking this data and creating a bar graph.

Objective: As a result of this lesson students will have a better understanding about the damage that can be done to their hearing.  They will be more aware of the objects that can cause permanent damage to their ears.  Students will also be analyzing a word problem to find data within a paragraph.  This data will be used to create a bar graph allowing the students to practice their modeling skills.  The students will be practicing their skills dealing with ratios.  At the conclusion of this lesson, the students will be assessed by creating a bar graph consisting of data about the decibels of other items that they use in their everyday life.  They will also be asked to create ratios about which items asked to create ratios about which items they chose that were safe, harmful, or cause serious damage. 

Input: The teacher will have to inform the students about how to create a bar graph.  The teacher will provide a quick overview consisting of the steps in creating a bar graph during the lesson.  This will allow the students to correctly display the data.  Also, after the lesson is completed the students will be asked to use excel to create the same bar graph on the computer.  The students will need to be informed about how to properly utilize the capabilities of this program to create the bar graph.  These steps will be given to the students later in the lesson.  At the close of this lesson, the students will be asked to create another bar graph using data from other items that create noise.  A list stating the decibels found in objects at home, work, or in recreation will be distributed to the class by the teacher so that the assignment can be completed.

Modeling: 

1. The teacher will be giving the students a paragraph consisting of the data that needs to be graphed (1 minute).
2. The teacher will them help the students to pull out certain statistics that are important and create a simple chart from the data.  The students will already have a chart given to them where they will be asked to fill in this information (2 minutes).
3. The teacher will inform the students about the level of decibels that can create harm to ones ear. That is he/she will tell the students that after 85 to 90 decibels the sound can be harmful to the ear. (1 minute).
4. The teacher will then display a blank chart with pictures of objects such as a blow dryer, lawn mower, chainsaw, guitar, airplane, shotgun, and rocket (1 minute).
5. The teacher will then explain exactly how a bar graph should be set up.  For example, the decibels should go along the vertical line and the pictures of objects along the horizontal (2 minutes).
6. Next, the teacher will show the students how to draw each bar so that it correctly displays the statistic given in the problem (1 minute).
7. The students will one by one create the bar graph resulting in seven separate bars on the chart (2 minutes).
8. The students will be asked to create three ratios showing which items in the bar graph were safe to the ear, harmful, or cause serious damage (3 minutes).
9. The teacher will review the list of steps used so that the students can create another bar graph and ratios from the data in the bar graph (2 minutes).

The teacher will be showing the students how to create a bar graph from a group of data so that they will be able to follow her example in another problem similar to this.  This lesson will take approximately 15 minutes to model.

Check for Understanding:  Throughout the entire lesson the teacher will be checking for understanding.  He/she will be asking simple questions such as “Now how do I set up the graph again?”  These questions will be asked after the procedure is shown.  The teacher will also explain how to set up the graph and ask the students to help finish drawing it.  This will reinforce what they were told to do.  At the close of the lesson, the students will be asked to use the computers and input the data into excel.  By using excel, the program will create a bar graph for them so that they can see again how this process works.  For homework, the students will be asked to create another bar graph and ratios from a new set of information dealing with decibels in other objects that they use in their everyday life.

Guided Practice:  The teacher will be guiding the students at various times throughout the lesson.  He/she will be helping the students to actually create the seven bars on the chart.  The teacher will also be helping the students to create their own graphs using excel.  Since the students might be unsure about how to create the graph on the computer, the teacher will assist them throughout the process.

Independent Practice:  The students will be asked to create a bar graph of their own once they have mastered the process. Although the students will be given a list of objects and their decibels, they must choose which items to put in their bar graph and create it by themselves. The students will be using this list of objects to create three ratios as they did in class.  \This assignment will be given for homework and the teacher will be able to assess the next day whether or not the students fully understood the process of graphing.

Works Cited (Health Information)

Merki, Mary Bronson.  (1999).  Teen Health.  New York:  Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.

Noise Center of the League. (February 1, 2001).  Noise Levels in our Environment Fact Sheet.  Available: http://www.lhh.org/noise/decibel.htm.

Noise Levels

Ø      When drying your hair the blow dryer creates seventy decibels of noise.

Ø      When it comes time to cut the grass, a power lawn mower will give off ninety decibels of sound.

Ø      To build something from wood one might need to use a power saw at times.  This will create one hundred and ten decibels of sound.

Ø      At a rock concert, the music creates one hundred and twenty decibels of sound.

Ø      At the ramp where a jet takes off, the noise level is measured at one hundred and twenty decibels.

Ø      The blast from a shotgun creates one hundred and seventy decibels of sound.

Ø      A rocket being launched into the air can create one hundred and eighty decibels of sound.

Create a chart from this information above so that it can later be graphed: