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6-8th grade materials were
made possible by 3M.
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Table of Contents
- Lesson 1: Happy Deal?
Currency exchange rates are used to convert the price of a Big Mac™
in different countries around the world into US dollars to compare purchase
prices. Percentages are also used to determine the amount of daily income
needed in each country to purchase a Big Mac™.
- Lesson 2: Vacation Vexation
Exchange rates are used to help plan an international vacation to Mexico.
Students discover how the appreciation or depreciation of a country’s
currency can affect the price of goods and services.
- Lesson 3: Baby-Sitting Wages and Movie Prices
Data-analysis is used to compare baby-sitting wages with the price of movie
tickets since 1945, providing a foundation for future lessons on inflation
and its impact on purchasing power.
- Lesson 4: Constructing and Using a Consumer Price Index
Percentages are used to help students create and analyze a Consumer Price
Index and learn how it is used to compare incomes and prices of goods and
services.
- Lesson 5: Why is Everyone so Crazy About Cell Phones?
Ratios and proportions are used to introduce students to the benefits of competition
by comparing cell phone service rates. Students analyze various rate plans
and play the role of a service provider to work out their own service plan
to sell to customers.
- Lesson 6: How Much is that Bike?
Fractions of unequal size are compared using percentages as a method for teaching
students how to calculate simple interest. Students are also introduced to
the idea of buying on credit and the additional costs and benefits of borrowing
money.
- Lesson 7: Which Pet is Right for You?
Decision-making exercises are used along with other mathematic skills to create
a weighting system that helps students select a particular type of pet.
- Lesson 8: Could You Earn a Million Dollars?
Students use their math skills to explore the relationship between earnings
and education. This lesson also serves to reinforce the connection between
education and future earnings.
- Lesson 9: Deserted Island
Charting and data analysis are used to introduce students to the concept that
not all skills are valued equally in the marketplace. Students generate data
on the value of skills through a bidding activity where they are given a budget
and asked to purchase the skills one would need to survive on a deserted island.
- Lesson 10: Where Does the Price of Pizza Come From? Part 1
Using plot points and equations, students complete a series of activities
that represent supply and demand curves to help them discover how prices are
determined. Students also compare and contrast linear equations and combine
supply and demand curves to find the intersection point to determine the market
price of goods.
- Lesson 11: Where Does the Price of Pizza Come From? Part 2
Students graphically solve systems of linear equation to examine changes within
the market for pizza and discover how prices are determined as they apply
the concepts of supply, demand, and equilibrium.
- Lesson 12: Charting a Budget
Students construct pie-charts to show the distribution of expenses, learn
about payroll deductions and determine their effect on spending, and learn
how the government uses tax revenue to pay for goods and services. Students
also construct a graph to represent the federal government’s budget
of projected income and expenses for the current year.
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