Growing a Garden

It's never too early to start saving for retirement. In fact, the earlier one starts, the better! Use this retirement planning activity to teach the importance of a retirement strategy and why to start at a young age. 

Almost every teen wants a car, but can they really afford one? The lesson walks pupils through how to identify a budget, find all of the costs associated with car ownership, and determine if they should buy the car or keep looking.

Scholars decide which job to take based on the pay. They then research cars to potentially purchase and determine the total cost of the car. Finally, they calculate how long they would have to work to purchase the car along with how much...

Give plants the best place to grow. Given constraints on plant spacing, pupils design a raised bed garden using graph paper, then calculate the perimeter, surface area, and volume. They use the provided costs of lumber and soil to...

More planning goes into a budget than a high schooler thinks. Here, they learn about the expected expenses and incomes, along with outside factors such as natural disasters. Learners prepare their own budget and adjust it based on the...

Translate phone plans to algebraic expressions. Pupils review translating verbal phrases to algebraic expressions by filling out graphic organizers and completing matching activities. Using a fictitious cell phone company, they create...

Make the most of your prom—with math! Pupils write and use a quadratic model to determine the optimal price of prom tickets. After determining the costs associated with the event, learners use a graph to analyze the break even point(s).

How much is your toaster costing you every day? Young environmentalists calculate the monetary costs of household appliances based on their average consumption of wattage.

The lesson plan provides a richly detailed narrative and sample problems for teaching or reinforcing how to work with percentages. In particular, your audience will compute the costs per serving of food and simulate setting menu prices...

You don't want to flush your money down the drain! Have your classes complete a financial comparison between two different types of toilets. They use linear modeling to determine the most cost-effective model.