Authentic Learning: Adoption Level

(9-12 Lesson)

Calculating A Monthly Car Payment
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Grade Level
11-12
Classroom Configuration:
  • One to one, using classroom computers or mobile laptops as rotating stations
Arizona State Content Standards
  • Math
    • Strand 2: Data Analysis, Probability, and Discrete Mathematics
      • Concept 1: Data Analysis (Statistics)
        • PO 1. Solve problems by estimating and computing with one-variable and two-variable data.
Arizona Educational Technology Standards (2009)
  • Strand 4: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Decision Making
    • Concept 1:Investigation,
      • PO 1 Plan and manage data sets from diverse sources, creating planning adjustments and course corrections from knowledge gained.
  • Strand 5 Digital Citizenship
    • Concept 1: Safety and Ethics,
      • PO 3 Advocate and practice safe, legal and responsible use of digital tools as defined by school board polices and procedures
Objectives
  • The students will solve a real-world problem of calculating a monthly car payment by utilizing online tools.
  • The students will calculate a monthly car payment by using a formula containing fractions, exponents, and order of operations from information acquired via online resources.
Procedure
  1. Students will research a car from an Internet used car dealer. Example sites to use: usedcars.com, AutoTrader, carmax
  2. Once students find a car, they will use the formula below to calculate a monthly payment.
    1. Students will experiment with the interest rates 6%, 8%, and 10%
    2. Students will also experiment with a 3 and 4 year loan length
    3. Students will calculate payment assuming there is no down payment, so the student must finance the entire price of the car.
    4. Key for formula: p = principal, r = interest rate, m = monthly payments
      formula
  3. example calculation for a 3 year (36 month loan) of $14,000 at 6% interest would look like this:
    calculation
    • The payment for this car would be $ 425.91
  4. Students will use an online scientific calculator, if scientific calculators are not available
    1. Scientific Calculator
    2. BETA version for an expanded view of calculations
  5. Students will write down the setup for each loan configuration that they compute.
    1. Loan Configurations will be:
      1. 3 year loan at 6% interest
      2. 4 year loan at 6% interest
      3. 3 year loan at 7% interest
      4. 4 year loan at 7% interest
      5. 3 year loan at 8% interest
      6. 4 year loan at 8% interest
Materials
Assessment
  • Student work will be assessed by evaluating the calculations that students computed.
TIM - Authentic: Adoption
Northern Arizona University