M. Burgess & J. Cummins
Mathematics/Science
Primary—Students will construct a circle graph to show the types of contraceptive measures we know of based on their percentage of success in preventing conception.
Secondary—Be able to convert fractions to decimals to percentiles in order to construct a circle graph.
Motivation—Students will see what measures of birth control are the most to the least successful and also see the relationship between this major issue in health science and mathematics via the circle graph (speakers, films and articles on birth control will be used as a motivational device).
Activity—Given the following measures of birth control and their rate of success and rate of usage, construct a graph:
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A. Birth Control Pill, 64%
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B. I.U.D., 10%
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C. Rhythm Method, 6%
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D. Creams/Foams, 2%
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E. Condoms, 18%
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Step I Convert the percentiles to fractional values then to decimal values.
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Step II To know what part of the circle each category will take-up, multiply the given decimal value by 360 to find the number of degrees each category will use in the
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Step III Using a protractor measure of the number of degrees in each category plot the points on the arc of the circle and construct each slice of the circle graph in this fashion.