Eat and Report.

Edible hints to tables, graphs, and charts.

One weekend you feel like you give new meaning to the term couch potato--how about mashed potato? You're embedded in the sofa all day, buried under food wrappers, too sluggish even to click the TV remote. You need some inspiration--anything!--to come up with an idea for your almost-due science project. So how come you feel so lethargic? Could it be all the cheese puffs, soda, and ice cream you've scarfed down?

You recently learned how to read a food label (see sample label in the Teacher's Edition, or log onto www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/ foodlab.html). So you give the food containers scattered around you a scan. Oops! Adding up your total percent Daily Value (%DV)--the recommended daily intake of a nutrient --you see that your fat and sodium intake well exceeds the recommended daily dose.

While ice cream supplied you with some calcium, a mineral element essential for strong bone development, you've eaten foods containing almost no iron--and iron is essential for healthy red blood cells, which can boost your energy and maybe even motivate you to exercise.

Next you ponder: Are you alone, or are your classmates in the same junk-food slump? Hey, there's a wake-up call for a science project! How do the eating habits of your class measure up to the FDA's prescription for a healthy diet?

Eat Up!

You convince each of your classmates to keep a food journal and record their total %DV intake of calcium, fat, sodium, and iron everyday for one week (see p. 19).

You'll need to scribble data throughout the day for seven days. In addition to carefully recording information in a journal, you'll need a system to organize your total dally results accurately and efficiently at the end of each day. This calls for something that's simple to read and easy to follow--like a data table (see p. 20).

A data table should include all the variables in your experiment: The independent variable is the variable you change deliberately. In this case, the independent variable is the different nutrients in your experiment: calcium, fat, sodium, and iron. The dependent variable is the variable that responds when you change the independent variable. In this experiment your dependent variable is the total %DV you consume.

Graph It

When the week is up, all those numbers in your journal may make you queasy. What do they anyway? It's time to translate into a form that's easier to stomach. A graph is a great way to show off your results because it allows you to instantly spot trends in your data.

For this experiment, a bar graph works best (see p. 20), because you can easily identify the total intake for each nutrient.

Maybe you'd like to try out for the basketball team next year--you'll need plenty of calcium for strong, fast-growing bones. Why not create another chart: How does your calcium intake change over time--say one week, for example? Your new independent variable: days of the week.

A line graph (see p. 20) displays the data best, because you can easily pinpoint changes in your total %DV calcium intake throughout the week. Just connect each point with a continuous line.

Easy as Pie

So how does your class measure up to recommended FDA standards? First, collect your classmates' data. Then, research FDA guidelines to reach a rating system for each nutrient--high, average, low, or really low, for instance.

Say with calcium you find that out of 30 classmates, 40 percent eat foods containing a high amount of calcium, 20 percent get an average amount, 10 percent score low, and 30 percent rank really low in their weekly diet.

Numbers expressed in percentages call for a pie chart (see p. 20). A pie chart is basically a circle divided into wedge-shaped sections. The circle represents 100 percent (your 30 classmates), and the wedges represent data that correspond to percentages of a whole. So the wedge representing classmates who consume a high amount of calcium takes up the biggest piece of the pie, or 40 percent of the circle.

Easy to Stomach

Feeling stuffed from all this info? Just study our easy-to-read, step-by-step, data-display how-tos (see p. 20). Besides tables, charts, and graphs, you can whip up other methods to display your experiment finds. Pictures and videos are great data-enhancing visuals. You can even display and compare healthy versus not-so-healthy recipes.

No matter which method you use to display your research, the most important point is to find the best way to make your findings easy to digest. And, hey, get off that couch!

Food for Thought

You NEED:

journal * pencil * food label * calculator

To Do:

1. Select four nutrients you wish to study.

2. Keep your journal handy, especially at meal or snack times.

3. Before you consume food or a beverage, read the food label.

4. Observe the serving size of what you're about to consume.

5. Calculate the percent Daily Value (%DV) of each of the four selected nutrients in the food or beverage.

6. Record the data. Continue recording data until your last bite of the day.

7. Add up the day's total for each nutrient.

8. Record on your data table (see p. 20).

9. Repeat Steps 2-8 every day for one week.

10. Calculate the average total %DV for each nutrient. Record on data table.

11. Graph away!