Project 2

A: Kristen Eure and Caitlin Williams

B: Letter

Dear Parents/Guardians:

This semester, our math class is studying percentages and proportions. Percentages can be used in a variety of fields and in many different ways. The students will work examples from their books and, our goal is to provide them with applications that relate to the real world in which they live.

For this unit we will look at two different cereal boxes and discuss their nutrition content in relation to how advertising is used to skew their view of the nutritional value. The students will measure out how much cereal they tend to eat and will be asked to compute calories, fat grams, and sugar content by serving sizes. Our hope is that they will see how advertising in the media affects their choices. Your high school students are at the age in which they will begin doing their own grocery shopping, and we want to help them make informed decisions.

The North Carolina Standard Course of Study for Mathematics provides teachers with a framework and goals that they are required to meet in their classrooms, with specifics for the content area. The philosophy of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for Mathematics is that teachers will help students develop mathematical knowledge so that they are informed citizens and can use the information they learn in their futures. The Standard Course of Study states, “Through their classroom practices, teachers promote students' mathematical reasoning, challenge them with rich problems through which they learn to value mathematics, and provide them with a strong foundation for further study.” With our cereal box activity, we want to give our students one example of how they can take the information they are learning in our classroom and apply it to their lives. This application will provide our students with a stronger understanding of proportions and percentages.

The Information Skills Curriculum “identifies the essential knowledge and skills that prepare students to locate, analyze, evaluate, interpret, and communicate information and ideas in an information rich society.” One of the goals quoted in the Information Skills Standard Course of Study is that teachers “equip learners with the skills needed to find, evaluate, use, and create information and ideas in order to communicate with greater power and effectiveness.” We are also going to ask our students to develop their own cereal box advertisement so that they will better understand why the media portrays things a certain way. This will allow them to communicate the skills that they have learned about percentages and proportions.

We understand that all of your children have different learning styles and intelligences, and we, as teachers, have to find ways to most effectively teach every student. We hope that by providing different classroom experiences, we are able to tap into different intelligences so that each student will be able to connect with the information we present. The background and

experiences that students bring to the classroom will affect how they view the world and the media. This will provide diversity to our analysis of the media. This type of discussion is important because students need to learn how to question information that is presented to them using the skills that they have learned in school, specifically our math class. We want to protect them from getting taken advantage of. Math can be found everywhere and we hope to bridge the gap between our classroom and the real world. We know that media is a big part of our students’ lives, and we don’t want to neglect their love and connection to it.

Thank you for all your support! We hope that this information helps you understand why we are doing certain things within our classroom. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,Ms. Eure and Ms. Williams

C: Apple Jacks and Fiber One cereal boxes

D: Cereal boxes- still ad

E: Pictures

F: Analysis

All media are constructions

1) How do you know this is a construction?a. cartoons, picturesb. company namec. enlarged pictures of the food

The media are commercial entities

2) Where do you think each of these boxes would be located in the cereal aisle at the grocery store?

a. Apple Jacks lower, kids’ eye levelb. Fiber One up high

3) Why do you think these boxes are placed where they are?a. Kids will see and be attracted to the Apple Jacks box b. Same reason for adults and Fiber One

4) Who might the cereal company have sold their product to?a. Grocery storesb. Walmart, Kmart, and other “big-box” stores (chains)

5) Why would this product be bought by grocery stores?a. Popular itemb. Large variety for customers to choose from

6) Why would consumers buy this product?a. Healthy choiceb. Prizes associated with cereal (Cereal cup with Apple Jacks)c. Taste either for adults or childrend. Support a cause (Fiber One and Susan G. Komen for the Cure)e. Appears to make you younger (picture of young women on Fiber One)f. Activities for young children(Puzzles on Apple Jack box) g. Seen other advertisements like on TVh. Recommendations from other people (popularity of the cereal)

7) Why do you think the cereal companies choose that particular serving size? How would people perceive the cereal if the serving size was smaller? What about if it was bigger? Do consumers look at serving sizes when purchasing cereal? Why or why not?

a. Makes the nutrition values look healthy, make it more appealing to the intended audience or consumers

b. Standard serving size for cerealc. Fit in with the Smart Choices Program (Apple Jacks) d. If smaller, people may not notice the change and be more drawn to the cereal for

health reasons. They may consume more of the cereal because it appears “healthy” and in turn purchase more cereal.

e. If larger, people could be turned off by nutritional values because they could be larger and less healthy.

f. It depends on the consumer. Young children probably do not but their parents may look at the serving size and nutritional facts. Consumers who are concerned with their health may look at serving size to keep track of their diet.

Media communicate values and ideologies.

8) What values are communicated on the Apple Jacks box? Fiber One box?a. Apple Jacks- Fun (cartoons smiling and jumping), Health ( Smart Choices green

check and symbol for Apple Jacks), Environment (recycled paperboard), Saving Money (coupons and free merchandise)

b. Fiber One- Health (berries, daily fiber value, and whole grain guaranteed check), Philanthropy( Pink together, raising money for breast cancer), Youth ( the image of younger women), Education( Box tops raising money for schools), Environment (recycled paperboard)

9) Why are the people with breast cancer so young on the Fiber One box?a. To promote the cereal to women of all ages. Young women can see that other

young women are supporting this cereal and older women can see that this cereal could make them feel young again.

10) Why is the nutritional value of the cereal presented the way it is? a. Apple Jacks- The parents will buy the cereal for their children.b. Fiber One- Consumers will see how much fiber is in the cereal so they will be

more interested in buying it.

The media have social and political implications.

11) What social issues are related to how the cereal is presented?a. Misleading consumers on how healthy something really is. (Smart Choices

Program and Apple Jacks) The ingredients in Apple Jacks are deemphasized because there is more sugar and salt than actual apples.

b. Fiber One supports finding a cure for Breast Cancer.

Media forms are related to content.

12) How does the way the media is presented affect the choices people make? If the cereal was presented in a different way would it be as effective? Why or why not?

a. People could want to buy the product because of an award it has received (Fiber One and ChefsBest Best Taste Award)

b. People could want to buy the product for its nutritional valuec. People may not see how healthy the product really is so they may not want to buy

it. (Fiber One and the amount of daily fiber it provides)d. Kids may not be attracted to a duller box so then parents would not buy the cereal

for them. (Apple Jacks)

The media have aesthetic qualities.

13) Why does the Apple Jacks box catch children’s eyes? Why is the Fiber One box attractive to adults? What if the company made the cereal boxes no color at all, would it still have the same effect? Why or why not?

a. The bright green color, the swirling/splash of cinnamon and cereal, and the cartoon figures. The free prizes and games on the box could catch their eye.

b. The yellow color is bright and could remind consumers of sunshine. The pastel colors are also calming and soothing.

c. Consumers would be less attracted to the box and more likely to buy another product.

14) How are these constructions made with the consumer in mind? a. Companies know what colors will attract young children vs. adults so they

incorporate bright colors for the children and more soothing colors for adults.

Audiences are involved in the process of creating meaning.

15) How would an older person view the Apple Jacks box differently than a younger person? How would a younger person view the Fiber One box differently than an older person?

a. An older person may find the Apple Jacks box obnoxious and too immature to consume.

b. A young person may think the cereal looks unappetizing and wouldn’t look at the nutritional value that it provides.

16) Who are the intended audiences?a. Young Children and the parents who purchase the cereal for Apple Jacks. b. The health conscious adults for Fiber One. They maybe young or old.

17) How would different races/ethnicities view these boxes?a. They may view it the same for the Fiber One box because of the ethnicities of the

young ladies on the back.b. Apple Jacks may be neutral as well.

G: Possible Production Connection

For our class activity, we would give our students a list of nutrition facts for some cereal. We would have them bring in an empty cereal box from home. We would split them into groups and have them cover the boxes with white paper. They would choose who they wanted their intended audience to be for their cereal (children or adults) and make up a name for the cereal and decorate the box accordingly. They could manipulate the nutritional facts given to meet the needs for their advertisement. For example they could make the serving size smaller or larger depending on their intended audience. After everyone finished their product, they would present to the class and explain why they decided to decorate the box the way they did.

Our attempt: We made our cereal, “Pirate Puffs” and we made up nutritional values for 1 cup of cereal and then changed the serving size to ¾ of a cup and then used proportions to change all the values. We made a crossword puzzle for the back of the box.