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9th Grade  Project 4 weeks

Mini Society Money Makers

Mercy W
Updated
CCSS.Math.Content.HSG-MG.A.3
CCSS.Math.Content.HSF-IF.B.4
CCSS.Math.Content.HSF-IF.B.4
CCSS.Math.Content.HSG-MG.A.3
CCSS.Math.Practice.MP4
+ 4 more
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Purpose

Students create and run a small class business to test how math, design, and communication work together in a real market. They identify a customer need, design a product and logo, and use geometric design, linear functions, and profit modeling to make business decisions. Through feedback from peers, teachers, and local business partners, they revise their ideas and prepare for a public Market Day Showcase. The experience builds content expertise, collaboration, critical thinking, and clear communication through authentic selling, pitching, and reflection.

Learning goals

Students design and revise a small business product, logo, and pop-up display that respond to customer feedback and real market constraints. They calculate material costs, set prices, and compare revenue and profit to make informed business decisions. Students use tables, graphs, linear equations, domain, and range to model sales, interpret key features, and justify how their function supports profit predictions. They communicate their thinking through portfolio artifacts, audio reflections, and a live pitch to peers, families, teachers, and local business partners at Market Day.

Standards
  • [Common Core] CCSS.Math.Content.HSG-MG.A.3 - Apply geometric methods to solve design problems (e.g., designing an object or structure to satisfy physical constraints or minimize cost; working with typographic grid systems based on ratios).
  • [Common Core] CCSS.Math.Content.HSF-IF.B.4 - For a function that models a relationship between two quantities, interpret key features of graphs and tables in terms of the quantities, and sketch graphs showing key features given a verbal description of the relationship.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.Math.Content.HSF-IF.B.4 - For a function that models a relationship between two quantities, interpret key features of graphs and tables in terms of the quantities, and sketch graphs showing key features given a verbal description of the relationship.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.Math.Content.HSG-MG.A.3 - Apply geometric methods to solve design problems (e.g., designing an object or structure to satisfy physical constraints or minimize cost; working with typographic grid systems based on ratios).
  • [Common Core] CCSS.Math.Practice.MP4 - Model with mathematics.
Competencies
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.

Products

Students will create a business plan, material cost sheet, pricing and profit calculations, linear function tables/graphs/equations, domain and range explanations, logo drafts, and short audio reflections as they build their idea. Teams will also produce an original product to sell, branded advertisements, and a mini pop-up stand that displays their product, logo development, graph sketches, and revisions. By the end, each team will submit a final portfolio with drafts, feedback notes, revisions, and a growth statement, then present a live business pitch during the Market Day Showcase. The culminating products are the finished product line, final logo, sales and profit model, presentation booth, and exhibition-ready portfolio.

Launch

Open with a Customer Quest Kickoff where teams rotate through short stations to identify real customer needs, test sample student-friendly products, and study examples from local business partners. At each station, students collect quick data on appeal, cost, and usefulness, then sketch one business idea and one possible logo concept on a planning card. Bring the class together for a fast debrief where teams share which product idea seems most profitable and what math they would need to prove it. End with a brief challenge: create a draft pitch for a product and brand that could succeed at Market Day Showcase.

Exhibition

Host a Market Day Showcase where teams run pop-up booths for students, teachers, families, and local business partners. Each booth should display the product, original logo drafts and final version, cost and pricing breakdown, linear function graphs, and a mini pop-up stand that shows how domain and range shaped the logo design and sales prediction. During the event, teams give a short live business pitch to a student or teacher panel, answer customer questions, and track actual sales to compare projected profit with real results. End with a brief public reflection where teams share one key revision they made to improve their product, branding, or profit model.