Comparison Shopping
Related to the previous investigation, can your students search online for the lowest cost deal among different cell phone providers? Aside from the national companies, there are often regional companies that might provide a better deal. Or do they? Again, math can help answer these questions. As of the time this is being written (late 2011), here is what was available in metro St. Louis for the lowest-cost monthly plans from five providers:
AT&T 39.99/450 Sprint 29.99/200 Verizon 39.99/450 T-Mobile 39.99/500 Cricket 35.00/unlimited
Your students can use this as a starting point for comparison. Why would someone
choose one company over another? Possible reasons might include preferences (offering a particular phone), costs for other features (such as text messaging), or coverage issues. As most of us have discovered, official coverage maps are of limited usefulness. Low cost doesn’t matter if you can’t make calls reliably. Just as your students discovered with the first investigation, different people have different needs and math can be part of making a good decision.
Market Research
Given the diverse needs people have for cell phones, your students might find it inter- esting to investigate who uses which provider. This offers possibilities for the class to design a study and then split into groups to carry out the data collection tasks. A simple approach would be to survey teachers in the building to see which cell phone company they use (if any). Additional questions might add more interest, such as asking people to provide the biggest reason they have for using that company. Once the questions have been developed, students will need to decide whom to ask.
How many people would be a good number to ask? Just a couple of people may not give answers that represent your community, while asking everyone in town would take too much time. Also, you can raise privacy issues with the kids: Some people may not be able to afford a cell phone, and it wouldn’t be good to make people feel self-conscious about that. Others just chose not to have one. Is there a way people could answer the survey confidentially? Is there another way to help people feel good about participating in your survey? After the data is collected, students can work together to devise a strategy for sharing
their data. Is this best shared in a table, or in a graph? If they use a graph, which type of graph is best? As students articulate and support their ideas you will gain a valuable window into their mathematical thinking, providing you with clues as to which con- cepts are well in place and which need further development. I hope these examples spark ideas of your own on how to promote financial literacy
and an appreciation for how math can be useful in answering real-world questions. There are also many practical technology applications embedded here ranging from spreadsheets to graphing tools. Students might even want to design an online survey with a free tool like Survey Monkey. Whatever you choose, engaging them with real- world questions and authentic uses of tools will provide a good learning experience.
Bob Coulter is director of the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center, managed by the Missouri Botanical Garden. Previously, he was an award-winning elementary-grade math and science teacher.
©SYNERGY LEARNING • 800-769-6199 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012
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