World's Largest Math Event 8
Entertaining Mathematics | |
Commercials pay for the programs that are produced for commercial network
television. These activities explore the amount of time spent watching
commercials.
(a) Ask students
to watch a half-hour network television program. They should keep a tally
of all the commercials that appear during that half hour, and count the
number of tallies at the end of the program. The class should pool these
data and make a class frequency chart, comparing the number of commercials
in different types of television programs.
(b) Ask students
to guess how many minutes in a 30-minute television program are devoted
to commercials. Have them gather data on a variety of shows at different
times during the week and average the information. Estimate the amount
of actual programming for a 60-minute television show or a 2-hour movie.
Discuss whether the time of day or type of program makes a difference.
Construct a chart containing the information and display it in the library
or in the cafeteria or share it during a Family Math Night.
10. Teachers Notes:
Subtracting the Ads
 (b)
One way to collect the data is to videotape a program and fast forward
to the commercials, then time the commercials and subtract their length
from the total program length. This information can then be displayed
in a table, as a bar graph, or as a series of circle graphs to compare
the data for a variety of types of television programs. Children may be
interested, for example, in whether more time is spent on commercials
for Saturday morning cartoons or weekday evening game shows. They may
also want to discuss the content of the commercials, since advertisers
target particular viewers of certain types of programs.
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