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Life
Expectancy and Access to Safe Water
Program Area
This activity
may be used in the Grade 9 Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Program, or in the advanced and general Grade 10 mathematics courses
as a part of, or a supplement to, the sections on graphing and
relations.
Learning
Outcomes
Teaching,
learning and evaluation will focus on the student's ability to:
Use a set
of data which is easy to understand and which has the potential
to create awareness of an environmental issue;
- Decide
how to graph the data;
- Consider
what sort of mathematical model best fits the data;
- Use the
data and the resulting graph to interpolate and extrapolate;
- Become
aware of the importance of a readily available source of safe
water and to think about what the effects of water pollution
might be.
Classroom
Development
Not all
of these suggestions are meant to be followed in each of the above
mentioned courses. Teachers should do those parts which are appropriate
for their courses and their students.
- Give
out the data sheet and discuss it briefly so that everyone has
a basic level of understanding of what the study is about.
- Allow
students time to discuss the data in groups. They should be
looking for patterns or relationships. Their observations could
be recorded.
- Look
for ways to graph these data. This may be just plotting points
to create a scatter graph, or looking for a curve of best fit.
A scatter graph is provided at the end of this unit for the
teacher's information. Do not give it to the students. Have
them try to come up with their own graphical presentation.
- Use the
graph to interpolate and/or extrapolate and to examine the correlation
between the two variables being plotted. Wherever possible,
relate this to mathematical concepts that they have studied,
for example, linear or non-linear relationship, relation vs
function, direct or indirect variation.
- Students
should note that the data cannot be completely described by
a mathematical model such as a linear relation.
- To complete
the topic, a discussion of the importance of a readily available
source of safe water and the implications of water pollution
would be appropriate.
Timing
Allow 1
or 2 periods (70 min)
Resources
Earthrights:
Education as if the Planet Really Mattered. Sue Greig, Graham
Pike, David Selby. London, England: The World Wildlife Fund, 1987.
Life
Expectancy and Access to Safe Water
The data
table is reproduced from the resource text.
The left
hand column of each table gives average life expectancy-less than
50 years in Table A and greater than 72 years in Table B. The
right hand column of each table records the percentage of the
population with access to safe water.
| Country |
Life Expectancy |
Water % |
|
| Country |
Life Expectancy |
Water % |
| Oman |
49 |
52 |
|
United States |
75 |
99 |
| Yemen, Arab Republic |
43 |
4 |
|
Canada |
75 |
99 |
| Yemen, Peoples Democratic Republic |
46 |
37 |
|
Cuba |
73 |
62 |
| Afghanistan |
37 |
10 |
|
Belgium |
73 |
89 |
| Bangladesh |
48 |
68 |
|
Denmark |
75 |
99 |
| Nepal |
45 |
11 |
|
France |
76 |
97 |
| Laos |
43 |
48 |
|
West Germany |
73 |
99 |
| Angola |
42 |
17 |
|
Greece |
74 |
97 |
| Burundi |
45 |
|
|
Italy |
74 |
86 |
| Central African Republic |
43 |
18 |
|
Netherlands |
76 |
97 |
| Chad |
43 |
26 |
|
Norway |
76 |
98 |
| Congo |
43 |
26 |
|
United Kingdom |
74 |
99 |
| Ethiopia |
46 |
13 |
|
Bulgaria |
73 |
|
| Guinea |
43 |
10 |
|
East Germany |
73 |
82 |
| Ivory coast |
47 |
14 |
|
Poland |
73 |
55 |
| Madagascar |
48 |
26 |
|
Austria |
73 |
88 |
| Malawi |
44 |
44 |
|
Finland |
75 |
84 |
| Mali |
45 |
23 |
|
Spain |
74 |
78 |
| Mauratania |
44 |
17 |
|
Ireland |
73 |
73 |
| Mozambique |
49 |
7 |
|
Sweeden |
77 |
99 |
| Niger |
45 |
49 |
|
Switzerland |
76 |
96 |
| Nigeria |
49 |
28 |
|
Israel |
73 |
99 |
| Rwanda |
46 |
38 |
|
Japan |
77 |
98 |
| Senegal |
44 |
35 |
|
Australia |
74 |
97 |
| Sierra Leone |
47 |
9 |
|
New Zealand |
74 |
93 |
| Somalia |
39 |
38 |
|
Costa Rica |
73 |
81 |
| Sudan |
47 |
46 |
|
|
|
|
| Togo |
48 |
11 |
|
|
|
|
| Uganda |
48 |
16 |
|
|
|
|
| Burkina Faso |
48 |
16 |
|
|
|
|
| Kampuchea |
44 |
14 |
|
|
|
|
Graph Life
Expectancy in years against Percentage of Population with access
to safe water
Questions
- Find
the ten countries which have the lowest life expectancy. For
each of these countries find the mean (average) life expectancy
and the mean percentage of people who have access to safe water.
- Find
the ten countries which have the highest life expectancy and
do the same calculations.
- State
what differences you notice and try to give explanations for
these differences.
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