So a little while back, we completed a science project about energy transformations. You can check it out here.

Energy Transformers

Either way, there was a math portion of this project which involved the unit we were doing in math at the time which was about linear equations. Once we had finished our science project, we were already quite familiar with linear equations and with the knowledge that we had, it seemed fit to move on to our next math unit.

“What is this new unit” you may ask? Well, it’s nothing that we hadn’t really seen before as it’s a continuation of our linear equations unit. For this unit, we were going to be working on systems of equations which essentially utilized most of the skills we were learning in math prior to this unit. Just like everything we learn about in PLP, there was a project that went along with the unit!

So, as this was a relatively short unit, our project actually wasn’t too big. The goal of the project in this case was to look up various cell phone plans along with the costs that went with them and to use graphical and algebraic solving in order to find the best cell phone plan of the bunch based on a person’s needs. It was clear that a live presentation such as a Keynote would be the best way to go about things as it can be difficult to explain so much math and information effectively in a video. Also it probably wouldn’t be too fun to watch…

I was paired up with Calum and Ryan (we had all been away for group selections) and we got right to work. We started off by finding four cell phone plans from separate providers which all had a variety different costs, overages, and amounts of data. We chose plans from:

-Koodo

-Rogers

-Bell

-Telus 

Once we had our plans, we started creating equations based off of the mx+b=y formula.

Luckily, we were taught well and this whole process went pretty smoothly. Once we had our equations, we had to put them on graphs which showed the rise in cost based on usage. We struggled a little bit with trying to include overage charges in the equations as they didn’t fit so well in our equations but we quickly realized it was just a matter of adding the extra cost after the maximum amount of data for the plan has been used. We put all of this on a Keynote which also explained which data plan we found fit our needs best and why. Check it out!

Cell Phone Plans

Overall, I liked being able to work on a somewhat smaller project as it gave a better glimpse of how I would be using different mathematic skills to help me make certain decisions in my life… like finding out which data plan fits my needs best!