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High School Grade  Project 4 weeks

Mathfia: The Algebra Underworld

Johnny V
Updated
CCSS.Math.Practice.MP1
CCSS.Math.Practice.MP7
CCSS.Math.Practice.MP4
CCSS.Math.Practice.MP1
CCSS.Math.Content.HSN-VM.C.6
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The Challenge

When you examine businesses linked to organized crime in New Jersey, concealed ownership, cash-heavy transactions, and incomplete records can obscure whether revenue comes from lawful commerce or illegal activity. These interconnected operations can undermine fair competition, reduce tax revenue, and facilitate corruption beyond the state.

Challenge Question

How might we use matrices and network models to analyze organized crime’s effects on New Jersey businesses so that local business owners can identify risks and support a safer, fairer economy?

Standards

  • [Common Core] CCSS.Math.Practice.MP1 - Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.Math.Practice.MP7 - Look for and make use of structure.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.Math.Practice.MP4 - Model with mathematics.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.Math.Practice.MP1 - Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.Math.Content.HSN-VM.C.6 - (+) Use matrices to represent and manipulate data, e.g., to represent payoffs or incidence relationships in a network.

Learning Partners and Clients

The New Jersey Small Business Development Centers can serve as a client by sharing how legitimate businesses map suppliers, customers, costs, and partnerships. A Rutgers Business School ethics or data analytics expert can help you represent a fictional New Jersey mob-family business network with matrices while protecting privacy and avoiding active cases. Share your model with the partner, showing how the same matrix structure can analyze both illicit networks and lawful business relationships.

Phase Overview

Phase Key Experiences
Discover
I can investigate a fictional New Jersey business case by tracing relationships among mob-connected companies, legitimate businesses, and money flows to identify patterns and root causes of unfair competition.
Examine
I can research how organized crime can affect New Jersey businesses, workers, and communities using age-appropriate public sources. I can represent anonymized business ownership, transactions, and supply relationships with network diagrams and matrices. I can compare suspicious and lawful business networks to recognize shared mathematical structures and adapt strategies when patterns are unclear.
Engineer
I can develop a matrix-based screening tool and ethical business guide that help a fictional New Jersey company identify suspicious network patterns and choose responsible partners.
Do
I can apply my tool to fictional business cases, collect accuracy and usability data from peers or school staff, and use the results to evaluate its effectiveness.
Share
I can share my business screening tool, mathematical reasoning, learning journey, and what I learned about my own perseverance through an interactive case briefing for peers, families, school staff, or a New Jersey business professional.