by Kyle Horton, Piedmont College
Group collaborative project on planning for, choosing, and affording your first car!
Teacher Introduction
This lesson is a small group project to complete lessons around budgeting and financing for the students’ first car. The scenario will include the concept of time value of money; students will have to develop a model which takes into consideration fixed and variable costs. They will research car costs, mileage, insurance choices, maintenance, and financing options and come up with a plan that will show: a) what car they chose and why, b) when will they be able to purchase it (cash or financing and why), c) how they will save for it, and d) how they will afford it. They will also be provided two choices for part time work; one pays more than the other, but is more miles away. They also can take the bus now, or chose to never purchase a car.
To add to the collaborative effort of this Webquest, I note where you can use discussion groups to do this webquest jointly with another high school remotely. I leverage off of the Math Forum site. click here
I have not actually set up the discussion group until I run the class, but the students can get visibility to what a discussion group can be used for.
At the end of the outcome of this Webquest, students will have a full understanding of what ‘costs’ to consider when purchasing a car: price, lease vs buy, cash vs finance, insurance, mileage, maintenance, etc. They will also be able to understand different approaches to keeping records and coming up with a budget, and be able to make trade off decisions.