Test attributes with apples - consumer skill activities for students

Sharpen students' consumer skills with these "appeeling" activities

'Tis the season for your students to bring you crisp, shiny apples as gifts. While this tradition has gone on since way back when, the apples have changed--more than most of us realize. A hundred years ago, the apple on your desk would probably have been a Baldwin, a Ben Davis, or another of the hundred of apple varieties grown in family orchards. Now the apple is most likely a Delicious or a McIntosh. What happened to all of those other kinds of apples? Students can explore this question and at the same time learn about the busines of modern apple growing, and how it both responds to consumers' preferences and narrows our choices.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE APPLES GONE?

Ask students to consider what factors have contributed to the disappearance of many old-time apple varieties. Severe winters wiped out many home orchards; in the late 1800s, the United States population shifted from rural areas to cities so there were fewer orchards; advances in transportation and shipping meant apples could become a bigger, cross-country business--and so the varieties that endured were those that stored well and looked good on the supermarket shelf.

But is a commercially successful apple necessarily the best-tasting one? The activity that follows will help students answer that question for themselves.

PICK OF THE CROP

Concepts: There are different varieties of apples, distinguished by shape, color, texture, taste, and smell. Consumers' preferences for certain apples, combined with apple sellers' quest for bigger profits, influence the types of apples that come to market.

Skill: observing, classifying, collecting, recording, and interpreting data

Materials: at least three varieties of apples (figure on one apple per four students), a paper plate for each variety, a knife, paper towels, reproducible, scissors, and a glue stick

Procedure:

I've divided this activity into two parts. If you are working with younger students, you may wish to do the first part of the activity one day, and the second part the following day.

Part I: The Apple of My Eye

1. Place each variety of apple on a separate paper plate. Label each variety A, B, C, and so on.

2. Have students cut out the apple markers from their reproducible pages.

3. Direct students to look closely at the apples. Ask: Based solely on how the apples look, which apple would you choose to eat? After students have made thei choices, let them know the names of the varieties they selected. Students can then record their choices on one of their apple markers and write down their reasons for selecting it on their reproducible sheets.

4. Make a class graph of students' apple picks by having them attach their appl markers to the graph.

Part 2: Take the Taste Test

1. Wash and slice the apples. (You'll want to cut enough slices so that each student can sample each variety.) Place each variety on a separate plate; label trays 1, 2, 3, and so on.

2. Have students close their eyes so the apples' appearance won't bias the tast test.

3. Invite students to taste several kinds of apples and choose the ones they think taste best. Instruct them to record their choices on the second apple marker (for example, My choice: tray #2).

4. After the taste test, reveal the names of the apple varieties (for example, tray #1--apple variety C, Golden Delicious). Each student can then record his o her choice on the blank side of the second apple marker, and then describe what he or she likes about the taste on their reproducible sheet.

5. Have students graph the taste-test results. Ask them to compare these result with the data on their first graph. If their selections were different, what does this tell them? (If a student favored a shiny red Delicious in Part 1, and a dull-skinned, pockmarked Cortland in Part 2, he or she might conclude that appearance isn't always a sure-fire predictor of an apple's appeal.)

6. Have students list the characteristics they feel a good apple should have (for example, a good apple is crisp, sweet or tart, juicy, and so on).

7. Make a language arts connection by having students sum up their findings in memorable saying (a la: You can't judge a book by its cover).

8. As a take-home activity, have students interview store owners about how they select the kinds of apples they sell. They can interview parents and grandparents about their favorite kinds of apples, as well. Make a class graph of the data. You can easily extend this investigation by having students research and taste-test other fruits and vegetables, too.

TECHNOLOGY CONNECTION

Extend students' consumer analysis skills with Data and Decisions Bar Grapher (Wings for Learning/Sunburst, Apple II, [800] 321-7411), which lets students compare and graph attributes of other favorite foods.

LYNNE KEPLER, a former elementary school teacher, is a freelance writer and elementary science consultant based in Pennsylvania.

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