Car Color Counting

Purpose: The goals of the project are to develop skills in comparing,observing, hypothesizing, graphing and communicating.

Contact Person: Karen Kahn Corlyn email: KAHNKR@mail.milwaukee.k12.wi.us

Curricular Areas Addressed: Mathematics & Social Studies

Grade Levels: 3rd through 8th

Number of Collaborators Accepted: Unlimited! Any number of students from a particular school may participate, however, please submit only once per school.

Summary of Project Plan: The teacher will divide the students into groups of 2 to 3 students each. Each group will be given a tally sheet. Over the course of the next week, these groups will be assigned to go to a large parking lot in your city. In the parking lot, the group will choose a random but continuous sampling of the colors of the cars parked there. Each group should choose one group of 20 cars that are parked in the lot. If there are spaces in between the cars, do not count the spaces. Vans, pick-up trucks and sport utility vehicles are counted as cars. Students will then fill in the tally sheet according to the results that they observe. Students should login the location of the parking lot and the time. The same parking lot may be used more than one time, as long as there is at least a two hour difference of time. The rules for determining the colors of the cars are as follows:

Red - red, burgundy,orangish red, maroon, cherry, wine

Blue - blue, turquoise, navy, light blue, teal

Black - black

Gray - gray, charcoal, silver

White - white

Beige - beige, light brown, off white, cream, caramel, gold

Other - any color that does not fit into the above descriptions, such as green, dark brown or purple, etc.

After the results have been tallied by the class, determine the percent of each color of car observed by the class, and submit this information using the form below. The results will be posted on this web page as they come in. Please note, the results will be allocated to the specific part of the United States that they were observed in.

Project Time Line: September 1, 1998 through June 10, 2002

After you have submitted your results, please allow your students the opportunity to send us graphs and written explanations as to why certain colors of cars may be more prevalent in certain parts of the country. Please draw as many conclusions as you see possible, and either email them to KAHNKR@mail.milwaukee.k12.wi.us or send them VIA snail mail to:

The conclusions and graphs provided by your school, will be added to our web page.