Date: April 6, 2003

Grade Level: 9, 10, 11, 12

Subject(s):

• Vocational Education/Business
• Social Studies/Economics
• Mathematics/Process Skills
• Computer Science

Duration: 38-40 minutes

Description: This lesson can be used as part of a marketing unit plan. Students participate in a taste test and record their results in an Excel workbook.

Goals: New York State Career Development and Occupational Studies Standards (CDOS) :

• Standard 2. Integrated Learning - Students will demonstrate how academic knowledge and skills are applied in the workplace and other settings.

1. Students will be able to differentiate tastes and analyze their preferences.
2. Students will record their likes and dislikes and see the synthesis of the class results in a graph form.
3. Students will analyze product ingredients by comparing labels.

• juices for taste testing (national brand and private brand products)
• cups labeled A & B (enough for entire class)
• blackboard
• chalk
• pens or pencils
• computer with Microsoft Excel
• computer projector
• Excel Workbook ( Click on the link to download the Excel workbook to your computer.)
• Student Worksheets

Student Worksheets in .pdf format; requires free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Click the icon to obtain the free Reader.

Before Class Begins:
Set up a computer and projector and open the Excel workbook for this exercise. (Note: Teachers may need to adjust the Excel workbook for their class size.) Write on the board, "Today’s Lesson - Taste Testing Exercise!" Label enough cups for the entire exercise.

While Students are Arriving to Class:
Greet students at the door and hand out the student worksheet.

Warm-up/Do Now:
Review today’s agenda with the students. Let them know that they will be participating in a taste test, and they are to conduct themselves as if this is a real consumer research group. Solicit 4 volunteers for the exercise. One volunteer must be familiar with Excel, one student is needed to pour the juices into the cups, and two students are needed to distribute the juices to the rest of the class.

Activity:
Direct the students to the worksheet, and review the difference between a national brand and a private brand. Give students instructions on completing the questionnaire and the process they will be following while conducting the taste testing. Ask the volunteers to come up to the front of the room; assign them to their tasks. Distribute the first set of cups of juice for tasting to the students. Have students record their responses on the worksheet provided. Count the class’s responses (have the students stand when counting their responses). Student responses should be recorded in the Excel workbook. After each tasting, reveal the products and review the results from the Excel workbook with the students using the graphic results to visually recognize the class preferences. Solicit student reactions by asking them if they were surprised, etc. Continue taste testing and recording the remaining juices until the taste testing is complete.

Time Permitting:
Review and compare the ingredients of each of the products, and highlight the differences in quantity of actual juice, etc. Randomly ask students to summarize today’s lesson.