Buying Your First Car

Utilizing Concepts of Data Collection and Statistical Analysis in the Real World

Introduction Congratulations you’re graduating high

school and your parents are giving you $1000 towards a car for college! However, you must pay the rest. Students will work in pairs (one taking the role of the child and one taking the role of the parent) to collaborate in researching, planning, and choosing the best first car. You will ultimately establish a process to answer the question, “can I afford this car?”

Task 1. Establish a collaborative list of car

choices to analyze. 2. Find the mean, median, mode, and

range of prices. 3. After finding measures of central

tendencies, create the following to represent your findings:› Box and whisker plot› Stem and leaf plot› Histogram

Task (cont.)

4. Based on graphs, compromise to choose the best car.

5. Determine monthly loan payment for that car.

6. Determine monthly insurance payment for that car.

7. Determine the amount you must make per week and the number of hours you will have to work per week to be able to afford the car.

Process Part 1 Determine who will be the child and

who will be the parent.› Child: choose 5 cars that you want and

think you can afford.› Parent: choose 5 affordable, reasonable,

and safe cars. Both should document price, mileage,

age, make, and model of each car. If you would like you could also print 1 picture for each car chosen.

Reasonable search websites: click here

Process Part 2 Use a poster board to document all data.

› You will use this to present to the class. Round the prices to the nearest $100. Find and document the: mean, median,

mode, and range. Use these values to create:

› Box and whisker plot› Stem and leaf plot› Histogram

Need a review on how to do each step? Then, click here.

Process Part 3 Once you complete your graphs, use

the information and work together to choose the best car for you!

Use the websites provided (here) to determine what the cost of the monthly car payment would be if you got a loan.› Keep in mind that your parents gave you

$1000 to get you started.› Also, base your figures off of a 9% interest

rate (because you are young and have no credit built yet).

Process Part 4

Now that you have the loan payment, you must find how much it will cost to insure your car.› Click here for proper site.

After finding the insurance value, determine the total monthly payment value (insurance and payment).› Make sure you update your poster at every

step!

Process Part 5 Using the total monthly payment amount,

determine how much you need to earn in a WEEK (four weeks in a month) in order to afford your first car.

Based on minimum wage ($7.25/hr), how many hours will you need to work each week in order to afford your car?

Is this a reasonable goal?? Explain, based on findings.

Process Part 6

Using your poster, present your findings to the class.› Step-by-step› In an organized manner› What was your final decision?!

EvaluationBeginning1

Developing 2

Qualified 3

Exemplary 4

Score

Data Collection(cars, mileage, price, etc.)

Group did not find enough car listings or had more than 5 errors in data.

Students found 10 different car listings, and listed data with 2-5 errors.

Students found 10 different car listings, listed data with only one or two errors.

Students found 10 different car listings, and listed all data correctly

Statistical Analysis

Mean, median, mode, and range were all found incorrectly. 

Only one or two of mean, median, and mode were  found correctly.

At least three of the forms of measure were found correctly.

Mean, median, mode, and range were found without any errors.

Graphical Representation

The graphs were completely incorrect, missing, or irrelevant.

The graphs were made with three or four errors. Or only one graph was made.

The graphs were made with only one or two errors. Or only two graphs were made.

The graphs were made correctly with all points labeled with numbers and units correctly.

Insurance and Loan Quotes

Students never chose a car to work with.

A car was chosen but no further work was done.

A car was chosen but only one of the other pieces of data were found.

A car was chosen and quotes were found.

Amount earned/ Hrs worked/week

Students did not find either value.

Students found both incorrectly , or only one value.

Students found one of the two values incorrectly.

Students found both values correctly.

Final Decision

Students never made a final decision.

Students made a decision but not based on their information.

A decision was made based on the data, but no explanation was given.

A final decision and explanation was given based on the group’s data.

Conclusion

Congratulations!! Even if you couldn’t buy the car you wanted, you learned a lot about the process of research, analysis, and decision-making. Now you see how statistical analysis and plotting is used in everyday life! Good luck with your new car, and drive safely!

Credits This was based off of a WebQuest

created by Roxanne Krieger; a teacher at International Prep @ Grover Cleveland in Buffalo.› Found at: Buying Your First Car!

See the Creative Commons Attribution • Non-Commercial• Share-Alike license for details on use and modification of this WebQuest.

Sites for Part 1 http://autos.yahoo.com/used-cars/certif

ied_pre_owned;_ylt=AiZHiH.hA9y32TYA9abOZowEc78F;_ylv=3

http://www.automotive.com/cars-for-sale/index.html

http://www.everycarlisted.com/search/conditionclass=used-car/geozip=14201-10/sort=price-a/page=6

Sites for Part 2

Box and whisker plots› http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/box/plot.html› http://www.regentsprep.org/Regents/math/ALGEBRA/AD3/boxw

hisk.htm

Stem and leaf plots› http://www.purplemath.com/modules/stemleaf.htm› http://www.icoachmath.com/SiteMap/Stem-and-Leaf_Plot.html

Histogram› http://www.icoachmath.com/SiteMap/Histogram.html› http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/Histogram/

Sites for Part 3

Loan calculators:› http://www.getauto.com/calculator.php

› http://autos.yahoo.com/car-finance/monthly-loan-calculator.html

› http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/auto/auto-loan-calculator.aspx

Site for Part 4

Car insurance quote:› http://www.esurance.com/welcome/landing/get_your_quote_to

day809.aspx?PromoID=MSNS02700p&partner_cd=12268266&tc=1&ts=4

› Tip: You do NOT need to put your SSN in to get a quote!!