Lesson Plan

What's in a number? Analyzing Smoking Statistics

Objectives

You will look at some statistics about cigarette smoking in America, and analyze them by illustrating them with bar and circle graphs. You will also convert percents into numbers, and speculate about the causes behind these statistics.

Materials

Graph paper, lined paper, calculators (optional), colored pencils, rulers, compasses

Introduction

This lesson is designed to complement the Research module and the Wilcat Sports Center activity on the Dig Deeper CD. Raw statistics often don't have significance until we place them into context. By using graphs to visualize data, and by working with percentages, students will understand the impact of smoking in America.

Background Information

According to the American Heart Association (AHA):

Among non-Hispanic whites, 27.4% of men and 23.3% of women smoke.
Among non-Hispanic blacks, 32.1% of men and 22.4% of women smoke.
Among Hispanics, 26.2% of men and 14.3% of women smoke.
Among Asians / Pacific Islanders, 21.6% of men and 12.4% of women smoke.
Among American Indians/Alaska Natives, 37.9% of men and 31.3% of women smoke.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the total population of the U.S. in 2000 was 276,059,000. If we break this total population down by both race and sex, we find that:

There are 96,461,000 non-Hispanic white males, and 100,468,000 non-Hispanic white females.
There are 15,934,000 non-Hispanic black males, and 17,684,000 non-Hispanic black females.
There are 16,489,000 Hispanic males, and 16,343,000 Hispanic females.
There are 5,083,000 Asian / Pacific Islander males, and 5,537,000 Asian / Pacific Islander females.
There are 1,012,000 American Indian/Alaska Native males, and 1,047,000 American Indian/Alaska Natives females.

Activity

Provide students with a copy of the background information (above).
As a class, discuss what bar graphs and circle graphs are, and what they help us visualize.
Have students answer the math questions below either individually or in pairs.
After students are done, compare answers and discuss what these findings mean. Some questions to raise:

Which groups of people have the highest number of smokers?
Which groups of people have the highest rates of smoking?
If you were in charge of anti-tobacco programs, which groups of people would you focus on helping?
What kinds of things could you do to help a particular group of people stop smoking?

Questions

Make a bar graph showing the percentage of people in each category who smoke.
Using the percentages from the American Heart Association and the population data from the U.S. Census, calculate the number of smokers in the U.S. for each of these groups of people:

non-Hispanic white males
non-Hispanic white females
non-Hispanic black males
non-Hispanic black females
Hispanic males
Hispanic females
Asian / Pacific Islander males
Asian / Pacific Islander females
American Indian/Alaska Native males
American Indian/Alaska Native females

Make a bar graph showing the number of people in each group who smoke.
What is the total number of smokers in the U.S.? What percentage of the total population smokes?
Using the total number of smokers in the U.S. and the number of people in each group who smoke, calculate the percentage of smokers in each group out of the total number of smokers.
Make a circle graph showing the percentage of smokers in each group out of the total number of smokers.

Answers to Math Questions

We've compiled some answers to the math questions, as well as some sample graphs. Please note that these answers are only meant to be guidelines, and not the absolute standard against which the students' work is graded.