A Caffeine Investigation – Part 1

Objective

Students will investigate the amount of caffeine in different drinks and analyze the data.

This is the first of a three-part interdisciplinary math project. Students will be investigating caffeinated beverages, the dangers of caffeine, and how advertising affects our perceptions.

In the next steps, students will: interview others to learn about their perceptions of caffeine, and then develop a public service announcement about caffeinated drinks.

Steps

1. Optionally read this article from The Atlantic about caffeine and increased ER visits. Students will brainstorm questions about caffeine.
2. Students look up the caffeine content of five different drinks and calculate how many one could have before it became dangerous.
3. Analyze that data using any method you'd like. This is left open so that you can assign an appropriate task for your kids' abilities: bar graphs, measures of central tendency, equivalence with ratios, etc.

Resources

• Step 1 Worksheet (PDF)
• Step 1 Worksheet (Google Slides)
• Step 2 Worksheet (PDF)
• Step 2 Worksheet (Google Slides)
• Step 3 Worksheet (PDF)
• Step 3 Worksheet (Google Slides)