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High School Grade  Project 4 weeks

Math Moves: Build Your Business Empire

Johnny V
Updated
MANC.01.02
MANC.01.01.b
MANC.01.02.c
MANC.01.02.d
MANC.01
+ 5 more
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The Challenge

When you use inaccurate algebraic models to represent costs, revenue, demand, or changing quantities, a business can lose profit, misallocate resources, or fail. Small errors in variables, equations, or assumptions can lead to costly pricing and planning decisions.

Challenge Question

How might we use algebra to improve pricing and profit planning for a student-run business so that our school community receives affordable products while the business remains financially sustainable?

Standards

  • [Colorado] MANC.01.02 - Apply algebraic skills to make business decisions.
  • [Colorado] MANC.01.01.b - Employ mathematical operations.
  • [Colorado] MANC.01.02.c - Create mathematical models from real-life situations.
  • [Colorado] MANC.01.02.d - Represent changes in quantities mathematically.
  • [Colorado] MANC.01 - Academic Foundations: Solve mathematical problems and use the information to make business decisions and enhance business management duties.

Competencies

  • Entrepreneurial Skills - Critical Thinking/Problem Solving (ENT.1)
  • Entrepreneurial Skills - Inquiry/Analysis (ENT.3)
  • Entrepreneurial Skills - Informed Risk Taking (ENT.4)
  • Entrepreneurial Skills - Creativity/Innovation (ENT.2)
  • Professional Skills - Task/Time Management (PRO.1)

Learning Partners and Clients

A local Small Business Development Center advisor can present a pricing or profit-planning challenge and assess students’ algebraic models. A SCORE mentor can demonstrate how equations, inequalities, and graphs represent costs, revenue, profit, break-even points, and risk. A local small-business owner can provide nonconfidential data or a realistic scenario and evaluate students’ algebra-based recommendations for feasibility.

Phase Overview

Phase Key Experiences
Discover
I can investigate a simulated struggling business by using variables, equations, tables, and graphs to identify how price, sales, and costs cause changes in profit.
Examine
I can gather customer and market data, then create and compare algebraic models for cost, revenue, profit, and break-even points to analyze possible business decisions and risks.
Engineer
I can develop a feasible pop-up business plan with algebraic pricing and profit models that predict outcomes, address customer needs, and guide my team’s tasks and timeline.
Do
I can run a small-scale sales pilot, collect financial and customer data, and substitute actual values into my algebraic models to evaluate profitability and make evidence-based adjustments.
Share
I can share our business solution, algebraic models, learning journey, and what I learned about myself through an interactive pitch and question-and-answer session with peers, families, school staff, and local business professionals.