Homework #1 (Excel #1) – Fall 2014 – Recycling Aluminum Cans –8 pts
Scenario – With several recent environmental disasters (e.g., BP oil spill, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Hurricanes Katrina, Irene and Sandy, etc.), many
metropolitan areas have been looking for ways to be more environmentally conscious … AND perhaps to make some money. For several years, towns/cities in Northern
Virginia have been running trial programs for recycling paper, bottles, and cans. Last year (2013), fourteen towns plus the District of Columbia decided to hold a
competition to determine the municipality that can do the best job of recycling, with the focus on aluminum cans. It is an important program given the outdoor
opportunities around the region, including the Appalachian Trail, the C&O Canal, the Potomac River, and the Chesapeake Bay, among others. To make the contest fair,
the winning town/city will be the one that recycles the largest number per capita, i.e., the number of cans recycled divided by the number of residents for that
town/city.
Ali Tambor (everyone calls her “Al”) is the competition coordinator for the recycling project. Al has provided you with some data (and a rough starting point for the
spreadsheet) in the file “HW1 – Fall 2014 – Recycling Cans.xls .”
• First, Al would like for you to alphabetize the list of participating towns/cities in an Excel worksheet. Display the numbers and create the formulas to
compute the total recycling for each city by year. This should be a whole number in the standard display as discussed in the Excel data validation handout. Make sure
you break out Washington DC from NOVA. Include the additional data provided in Additional Data Word document (1 pt).
• Determine the per capita recycling value to 1 decimal places. This will determine the contest winner for the first six months of 2013 (including Washington,
DC). Use conditional formatting to determine the largest per capita value for the Jan-June timeframe (e.g. after the six month period, who wins?) (1 pt).
• In addition, she wants to know a few statistics about the monthly recycling efforts, including the minimum, average, and maximum values for the number of cans
recycled for each month, i.e., what was the smallest number of cans recycled, the average, and the largest for each month). Break this out by Northern Virginia
towns/cities (as the Washington DC numbers would constitute the smallest, average and largest number for each month) to one decimal place (1.5 pt).
Each town/city also makes some money from these recycling programs.
• The initial value of each recycled aluminum can is currently 3 cents. However, aluminum prices fluctuate. Therefore, in addition to this basic assessment of
a revenue rate of 3 cents/can, Al wants you to build/modify the spreadsheet so that she can compare two additional revenue rates, 2.81 cents/can and 3.23 cents/can
(1.5 pt). The results for all three rates should be displayed in the spreadsheet at the same time. Complete this spreadsheet so that Al can assess the success and
value of the recycling effort (i.e., the potential revenue) for each month (for all towns/cities combined) and in total for the combined six months recycling effort.
Make sure this is displayed in a monetary format. [Note: These reimbursement values do sometimes fluctuate as the recycling market evolves. Therefore, you should
set up the spreadsheet so that the revenue value(s) and related calculations can be easily and quickly adjusted/updated to reflect market fluctuations. (Think about
what this means for your design!)].
• Figure out a way to have the spreadsheet automatically mark or indicate the NOVA city with the highest amount of recycling by month (1 pt).
• Finally display a column chart showing the NOVA cities recycling for March and May (1 pt).
Homework Evaluation
• All requested data fields should be used/calculated. Use the spreadsheet to do the calculations and to fill in the results. (In other words, just typing in
the calculated values is not making use of the capabilities of the spreadsheet and will result in a major deduction in points.) Work toward a good layout for the data
(e.g. 20,000 instead of 20000, $14,000 instead of 14000). Make sure all fonts are the same (size and type). (1 pt)
• Make sure any labels you add are helpful/useful in explaining the cell content. (Note: Although Al has asked you to do this work, you should assume that
others who are not as familiar with the contest will also look at the results and will need to be able to make sense of the output data without a lot of explanation.)
Additional Recycling Data for April, May and June 2013
(Note that the data below may not be in the same order as the data in the spreadsheet!)
April May June
Washington, DC 789016 800531 850481
Arlington 185818 95149 90060
Vienna 19,873 13,058 99,381
Chantilly 30195 35997 45091
Leesburg 97631 107541 119590
Ashburn 55012 59072 59408
Oakton 19875 29870 23951
Great Falls 23,687 35,097 35,198
Fairfax 33081 36085 29839
McLean 29,810 27,714 28,975
Lovettesville 4,318 1,297 3,075
Middleburg 1864 2525 7106
Annandale 12456 17896 23461
Falls Church 34135 14562 14235
Reston 21567 15342 18342