What Will It Cost? 3 Copyright © 2026 Pearson Education, Inc. What Will It Cost? (50 – 60 minutes) Learning Objective(s): Students will fit an exponential function to bivariate numerical data. Students will interpolate and extrapolate data to make predictions based on an exponential model. Material needed: Student pages: What Will It Cost? Calculator or online calculator Graph paper Lesson Procedure: Warm–Up 10 minutes Prompt: How do you think that housing costs compare to other costs in a household’s budget, such as food or transportation? Discuss: Provide a sample monthly income for a family with two working adults. (Choose a realistic, moderate income.) Guide students to discuss how much of that income might be spent on various household expenses. Guided Instruction 15 minutes Present: scenario for What Will It Cost? Example: Students may need support to understand the context of this activity. Be prepared to prompt answers to the questions. What is inflation? Sample answer: It is the general increase in the price of goods over time. How can inflation be measured? Sample answer: Economists can collect data about prices over time and then use a model to estimate general inflation in the prices. What is a reasonable rate of inflation? Sample answer: 2% to 3%, because that is what the government targets inflation to be. Review: key terms – curve of best fit, exponential model, model, scatter plot curve of best fit: a curve on a scatter plot that passes as close to as many points as possible exponential model: an exponential function that is used to explain bivariate data model: a mathematical representation of a set of data scatterplot: a graphical representation of bivariate data where the x- and y-coordinates of each point represent the two variables in the data Independent Practice 20 minutes Distribute: student activity What Will It Cost? Have students independently fit the data to an exponential function. Then, have them work in pairs to answer questions 2–4. Closure 10–15 minutes Review Answers: 1. See graph. 2. a. $3,714; b. $5,941; c. $16,880 3. a. 5.36% per year; b. Sample answer: The base of the exponential function is 1.0536, which is a 5.36% increase per year. 4. Sample answer: Policy makers should try to reduce rent inflation. One way could be to build new affordable apartments. They could also consider cutting renters’ other costs, such as lowering taxes. They should also consider whether or not rent inflation is in line with increases in salaries and inflation of other costs. Discuss: How can you use bivariate data to make predictions? How accurate do you think these predictions will be?
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