Revisiting Our Data

The next step for me was to have students identify class trends. Students in small groups created a bar graph that represented everyone's data in both a bar graph (which students were familiar with) and in a pie chart (students have not been explicitly taught pie charts but, it was a similar format to the ChooseMYPLATE representation of serving sizes). Afterwards, we continued our conversation about our eating trends. During this time we strictly focused on what we were eating as a class. I wanted to shift the mindset  from the individual to the whole. Through conversation and analysis it was becoming apparent that we were not eating enough vegetables, which provide many vitamins. Naturally, my next series of questions were geared towards the reasons why students were not consuming enough vegetables. They came up with three main reasons:

1. Vegetables look and smell gross.
2. They don't taste good.
3. We can't get them at the bodega (corner store)

I quickly, (I think maybe too quickly) jumped into having them identify action steps. I asked them -" What we can do to make sure all kids eat their vegetables to get the vitamins and minerals they need to growth healthy bodies?" Students suggested that we create a cooking show (peer education), songs and advertisements. All of their suggestions were a great start. But, in speaking with my professor, Bree Picower, I realized that I had fallen into the trap! The action steps that my students identified were creating awareness, not addressing the systematic reason why my students were not consuming enough vegetables. Although I still plan to use their ideas throughout the semester, I need to revisit how I pose the problem and how I guide my students to come to a possible solution.

Above: Students working on the whole class Bar Graph. See finished product below.

Below: Students represent information in a pie graph.