Trends in teen drug use.

Collecting, graphing, and analyzing data are key parts of scientific research and reporting. Study the line graph below to analyze national trends in teen drug use from 1996 to 2007. Then answer the questions that follow.

[GRAPHIC OMITTED]

1. The graph shows the percents of 8th-, 10th- , and 12th-graders who reported past-month use of an illicit drug from the years 1992 to 2007.

(A) True

(B) False

2. Overall illicit drug use by 8th-, 10"-, and 12th-graders between 1996 and 2007.

(A) increased

(B) decreased

(C) stayed the same

3. The percentage of 8th-graders using an illicit drug dropped between 1996 and 2007.

(A) about 50 percent

(B) about 25 percent

(C) more than 75 percent

Now try this: Bar graphs are another way to represent data. Like line graphs, bar graphs have a horizontal x-axis and a vertical y-axis. The height of each bar represents a certain value (percent) measured for each group. The table below includes the percentage data that were used to construct the line graph above. Select three separate years from the chart below. Then, on a separate piece of paper, create a bar graph to represent the percentage data of those three years for grades 8, 10, and 12.

              1996   1997   1998   1999   2000   2001

8th Grade     14.6   12.9   12.1   12.2   11.9   11.7
10th Grade    23.2   23.0   21.5   21.2   22.5   22.7
12th Grade    24.6   26.2   25.6   25.9   24.9   25.7

              2002   2003   2004   2005   2006   2007

8th Grade     10.4    9.7    8.4    8.5    8.1    7.4
10th Grade    20.8   19.5   18.3   17.3   16.8   16.9
12th Grade    25.4   24.1   23.4   23.1   21.5   21.9

ANSWERS to Student Worksheet: 1. b; 2. b; 3. a.