BEER CONSUMPTION

Alcohol is one of the beverages with which man has had a long association. In some form it is present in almost every society, often used for social, religious, and medicinal functions. One form of this beverage, beer, in the United States is the end product of a six billion dollar industry. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate an exercise, through student inquiry, which allows the development of the patterns an.d trends of beer consumption in the United States. The activity commences with locating the geographical points where the beer is consumed, and considers the direct and indirect influences of such factors as ethnic preferences, income growth, and aggressive advertising. Students will be provided with data of per capita consumption and per capita income for the years 1949, 1959, and 1969. The statistics will be used to develop maps and graphs. These three instruments (data, maps, and graphs) will be useful in the development of skills such as, data classification, map analysis and construction, graph analysis and construction, and concepts associated with correlation, areal association, and threshold.