NEA: The Average Kid

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The Average Kid

Teaching Theme of the Week

from Education World®

Students determine the traits they have in common with other students in the class and create a visual profile of the "average" boy and girl in the class.

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Subjects: Math, Visual Arts

Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8

Objectives
Studentw will:

create and complete a questionnaire about the physical and personal characteristics of the students in their class; and,
create visual profiles of the "average" boy and the "average" girl.

Keywords
average, graphs, similarities, differences, tolerance, probability

Materials Needed

2 large sheets butcher paper
construction paper of various colors
crayons or markers

Procedure

Explain to students that they are going to create "portraits" of two "average" students in their class. Brainstorm with students a list of characteristics they might want to include in such a portrait, such as eye color, hair color, hair style, favorite food, favorite color, favorite activity, favorite sports team, and so on. Help students create two questionnaires, one for the boys and one for the girls, about the characteristics they decide on.
Arrange students into small groups -- one for each characteristic covered in the survey -- and have each group create a bar graph showing the prevalence of one characteristic. Display all the bar graphs in the classroom.
Arrange students into two groups, by gender, and provide each group with a large sheet of butcher paper, pencils, crayons or markers, and construction paper. Have each group use the information in the graphs, and any other information they discover as they complete the project, to create a life-size image of the average student. The boys should create a portrait of the average boy and the girls should create a portrait of the average girl.
Discuss with students the similarities they discovered.

Assessment
Students will be evaluated based on the graphs and on their participation in the group discussions preceding and following the creation of the portraits.