Car Prices

Purpose: Car prices change every year. As a car gets older the price drops. But do all cars drop at the same rate? How can you find out? What does the data show?

Objective: The students will gather data, graph it and use the graph to make some observations about the data.

Materials:

Task:

You are going to create a spreadsheet that includes the following information:

Name of Car First Year Second Year Third Year Fourth Year Fifth Year

From the information you record you will create 2 bar graphs and a line graph. Use these graphs to answer the questions on your worksheet.

Steps:

Gather your data

  1. On paper create a rough outline of the above table.
  2. Decide with your partner what five years (they must be consecutive)you will use.
  3. Decide with your partner what 4 cars you will use.
  4. Access Edmond's Price Page and record the information.

Create your spreadsheet

  1. Open ClarisWorks and create your spreadsheet.
  2. Copy the information from your note book paper to the computer.(see example)

Create your first graph

  1. Highlight the information in rows 2-6.
  2. Go to Options and choose Make chart.
  3. Click on General and Series 1and put a check by first row and a dot by Series in rows.
  4. Click on Axes and label them appropriately (x-axis will be Years; y-axis will be Prices)
  5. Click on Labels and title this "Car Prices by Years".
  6. Save this as "Car1". (see example)

Create your second graph

  1. Highlight the information in rows 2-6.
  2. Go to Options and choose Make chart.
  3. Click on General and Series 1 and put a check by first row and a dot by Series in columns.
  4. Click on Axes and label them appropriately(x-axis will be Models; y-axis will be Prices).
  5. Click on Labels and title this "Car Prices by Models"
  6. Save this as "Car2".(see example)

Create your third graph.

  1. Highlight the information in rows 2 -6.
  2. Go to Options and choose Make chart.
  3. Create a line graph.
  4. Click on General and Series 1and put a check by first row and a dot by Series in rows.
  5. Click on Axes and label them appropriately (x-axis will be Years; y-axis will be Prices)
  6. Click on Labels and title this "Car Prices Drop".
  7. Save this as "Car3". (see example)

Create your second spreadsheet

  1. Copy the information in column A to Cell A8.
  2. Calculate the difference between the prices in Columns B and C; Columns C and D; Columns D and E; Columns E and F. (Use the formula " =B3-C3" , etc.)
  3. Do this for each model of car. (see example)

Calculate an Average

  1. To calculate the average decrease,click in the cell next to the last entry in the first row of your second spreadsheet.
  2. Write the formula for Average (Hint: it is just like the one for sum except instead of "sum" you type "average")
  3. Highlight going down the next three cells (be sure you start in the cell with the formula: four cells altogether) and go to Calculate and Fill Down.
  4. To calculate the average price, click in the cell next to the last entry in the first row of your first spreadsheet.
  5. Highlight going down the next three cells (be sure you start in the cell with the formula: four cells altogether) and go to Calculate and Fill Down.
  6. Now you have the information you need to calculate the % of decrease.

Calculate the % of decrease

  1. Click next to the last entry in the first row of your second spreadsheet. A % of decrease = average difference divided by the average price multiplied by 100.
  2. Write a formula for the % of decrease.
  3. Use the Fill down feature to do all four models.

Worksheet

  1. Use your graphs to answer the questions on the worksheet.

Student Worksheet.
Print Version of this lesson.

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