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Duplicate
and distribute these activities. Students may work independently
or cooperatively.
Calculate
Your Commute
Use your data-gathering skills to develop a composite picture
of your class’s commute experiences.
• Design
a commute survey form, or use the Commute Survey Form provided below.
• Distribute
it to your classmates, or to people in a group of which you are
a member.
• Collect
the results. Figure out how to use math to make each part of the
data quickly understandable to an audience. For example, you might
compute the average times of worst-case, typical, and best-case
commutes and then compare these by creating a bar graph.
You
might extend this activity by polling members of other classes or
groups and comparing their responses to those of your class or group.
Commute
Survey
Distance
(One Way) ________________________
Mode
of Commuting
from
home to school
________________________
from
school to home
________________________
Home
to School
Typical
Time ________________________
Fastest
Time ________________________
Slowest
Time ________________________
School
to Home
Typical
Time ________________________
Fastest
Time ________________________
Slowest
Time ________________________
Compare
Increases
In the past ten years, the average pay of chief executive officers
in the United States has increased by 481%. During the same period,
the minimum wage that must be paid a worker has increased 54%, from
$3.35 an hour to $5.15 an hour. Using these figures, calculate the
following:
• the
current hourly rate of pay of a CEO who earned $40/hr. ten years
ago whose rate of pay has increased at the average rate for all
CEOs
• the
hourly rate of pay this CEO will earn ten years from now, if her
or his rate increases at the same rate it did in the prior ten
years
• The
hourly rate of pay of a minimum-wage worker ten years from now,
if the minimum wage increases at the same rate it did in the prior
ten years
• the
number of minimum wage workers who could be paid ten years from
now on the salary of one CEO (Use the rates you completed above.)
You
might want to do a bar graph showing the minimum wage then and now,
and a bar graph showing the CEO wage then and now, and follow up
this activity by debating whether any limitations should be placed
on executive salaries, or whether greater increases in the minimum
wage should be mandated. (Hint: These are complex issues. To do
a good job debating these points, you will need to do research on
several topics related to wages
in the United States,including the relative importance of top
management in determining the success or failure of companies.)
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