MATH/SOCIAL STUDIES – This lesson allows students to view primary source materials and draw historical conclusions based on food purchases. Students can also utilize these sources for mathematical calculations.
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Common Core Standards:
3.MD.B.3: Draw a scaled picture graph and a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories. Solve one- and two-step “how many more” and “how many less” problems using information presented in scaled bar graphs. For example, draw a bar graph in which each square in the bar graph might represent 5 pets.
Learning Objectives:
- Create a line graph based on historical information.
- For younger students you can change the amounts to numbers that are easier to work with.
Primary Sources:
Click here to view the food comparison on all boats of the Hudson River Line in 1924 from the Hudson River Line Collection, SSHSA Archive.
Click here to see the itemized amount of food purchased for the 1924 season from the Hudson River Line Collection, SSHSA Archive.
Vocabulary:
- data
- x-axis
- y-axis
- point
- line graph
- graph
Questions:
- On this graph, which is the x-axis, which is the y-axis?
- Looking at our data, how should we number/label the y-axis?
Sentence Stems:
- The boat that ordered the most/least is _____.
- ____ ordered the most/least.
- The Y-axis should be labeled _____.
Lesson Opening:
Ask students to imagine what they eat in a day for each meal. Have them write it down and share out. Make a list of the foods, no repeats just tally the ones that are the same. If they were all traveling together for 3 days, how much of each item would they need to purchase to ensure everyone had enough to eat? Have them create a graph to display this information. What about a week? Ask them to imagine how much food they would need for 1 month.
Lesson Body:
Create a line graph for each boat, with the food item on the x-axis and the amount purchased on the y-axis, and use a different color for each line to differentiate between the line items. Only pick one section to graph.
Determine which boats consumed the most food. Answer these questions: Which boat ordered the most of each item, which ordered the least?
Lesson Closing:
With a partner graph the groceries section and interpret the same information.
Social Studies Questions:
- What does the decrease in spending on food across the years mean?
- How does this reflect economic stability and the Great Depression?
Extension Activity:
Order the amounts from least to greatest for each item. What is the difference between the greatest and least? Can you find the average purchased for each item?
Additional Resources for Hudson River Line
Peter Hess, A Short History on the Hudson River Day Line.
Steamboats on the Hudson: An American Saga.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.