Last week we looked at how Americans spend their time in the typical day using Flow Data’s article Counting the Hours.

This week we’re looking at their follow up article using the same data but exploring how age, sex, and time of day influence our activities.  

Before diving deep into the infographic take some time to make some predictions with your students.  For each group below try to identify which group might spend the most time (1) working, (2) socializing, or (3) doing household activities.

1. Age groups 15-24, 45-54, or 65+
2. Males or females
3. 6-6:30AM, 11-11:30AM, 7-7:30PM 

Now that you’ve made some predictions it’s time to jump in.  There are 3 main controls for the infographic - age, sex, and time of day.  Students will want to play around with all 3 controls to see what difference each makes. Challenge each of your students to identify 3 trends they can find on the chart.

To wrap up share out your trends and come up with a whole group list.  Pick some of the more interesting trends and ask your students to speculate about their origins.

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We just released 10 new Interactive Activities. Check them out in our Interactive Library! Just type NEW in the Search box:
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Thanks to NGPF Fellow Brian Page for sharing this activity that he created to improve teen sleeping habits. 

About the Author

Greg Livingston

Greg comes to us from a big Canadian family full of passionate educators: the joy of teaching and learning has always been an important part of his experience. He saw first hand the need for personal finance education after having his student research careers and create a budget in his computers class. His students would not stop telling him how important this project was, even years later. Greg brings his unique experience designing and managing online learning communities for Columbia University, Connected Camps, and others to the Next Gen team. He is excited to connect with great teachers and support them in their challenging and rewarding work. Greg is a proud jack of all trades - outside of work he likes to play soccer and hockey, make music, read old books, and explore the great outdoors.