A Socially Relevant Problem in Unit and Dimension Conversions During the Summer Quarter of 1970, a group of academically underprepared students conducted a strike a t Antioch College. Among the strike issues was the demand that Antioch develop a program for the proper academic preparation of its students. This program Was t o be based on material relevant to the social conditions from which the students in question arose. The strikers elucidated a numher of examples of such material that might he used in the sciences. Although we have been unsuccessful a t incorporating most of these ideas into our curriculum, we have managed to include a t least one such item in our course to prepare students for Freshman Chemistry. The problem that we deal with is nutrition in the ghetto, and is used as an exercise in unlt conversions as follows. Using the table below find the cheapest source of nutritional iron in Yellow Springs. The Iron Content of Selected Foodsa
Food
Contentb
Food
Contento
Caviar Cocoa, Dry Powder Cottonseed Flour Beef Kidneys, Cooked, Braised Hog Liver, Raw Lamb Liver, Raw
11.8 10.7 12.6 13.1 19.2 10.9
Blackstrap Molasses Potato Flour Pumpkin Seed Kernels Rice Bran Rice Polish Whole Sesame Seeds
16.1 17.2 11.2 19.4 16.1 10.5
Food
Contentb
Sorghum Syrup Beef & Calf Spleen Hog Spleen Wheat Bran Dry Active Baker's Yeast
"Campositian of Foods." Agriculture Handbook No. 8, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402, Table 1. *In mg iron per 100 g food. This is an exercise in the manipulation of units. What you have to do is find the price of these items at various locations in Yellow Sorines " .(IGA.. Weaver's. Real Good Food Co-OD,etc.) and translate all the numbers into mg of iron per unit of cost. In principle, then, you know enough to do a nutritional study in any community. You can compute the cheapest source of any essential nutrient. All you need is a table such as the one provided above. Such tables can he found in, "Composition of Foods," Agriculture Handhook No. 8, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402, which can be purchased from the U.S. Government Printing Office for $1.50. There are some small complications in using these complete tables. For example, some foods have low nutritional values, but they are available commercially with added supplements. With this problem you must remember that approach is more important than answer. 1do not know what the "correct answer" is. 1donot even know if all the foods listed above are available in Yellow Springs. Just do the best you can.
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Stanley Bernstein Antioch College Yellow Springs, Ohio45387
Volume 50, Number 1, January 1973 / 65
