Lesson Ideas for

The Global Grocery List Plus Project

Created by Jill McCue

Last Updated: July 23, 2002

Lesson Ideas to be Submitted

By Jill McCue to

The Global Grocery List

(The submission form is not working on the site. I have emailed Dave Warlick regarding the error message and will submit these ideas as soon as it is working.)

Idea #1

Any item that has more than one brand requires that the student/students average the prices available. This provides practice in the skill of averaging and using a calculator if the instructor allows. Prices submitted to the site will be a better “view” of the location, rather than a student’s favorite brand or store’s sale price.

Idea #2

Teach the students to use ratios and cross multiplication to figure the prices for a pound of each food item that does not normally come in pounds. This teaches the concept of 16 ounces in a pound and is good multiplication and division practice. Example: If peanut butter comes in 18 ounce jars and it costs $2.49, the student sets up 18/2.49 = 16/? to solve for 1 pound. This was a great real life math lesson/use as my students had to do this for many of the items.

Idea #3

Students gather prices for a local store and ask an out of town or state relative or friend to gather prices in the place he or she lives. A hypothesis about prices in the 2 towns could be made based on what the student knows about both locations. Once the prices are submitted the student can use the prices to check the hypothesis.

Idea #4

The teacher can find towns that have submitted prices to the site for students to research. Web pages about the communities can be made with the research. The student can make an educated guess about the prices in the researched community compared to the student’s hometown. Allow the students to view the prices and check the guess. This activity provides practice in research using both Internet and printed material, allows the student to use a computer to present the findings and to compare findings. *Note: check the submitted prices carefully before assigning a community. Many are not accurate.

Idea #5

Have students take digital photos of them price checking and working on the site. These can be used if they produce a web page of their home community with the information they find.

This will provide practice for students using technology and inserting the photos into documents.