Getting Down to Business: Fractions and Spreadsheets
Students simulate business situations—using spreadsheets, formulas,
and graphs—to explore the concept of functions. Students begin to think
about the relationship Profit = Income – Expenses as they play
a pencil-and-paper business simulation game. They then learn how to set up
simple spreadsheets to test different “What If…?” questions
that they pose about different business situations. They then look at data
from several fictitious businesses (a t-shirt company and a movie theater)
to compare income, expenses and profits with tables and graphs and make a
recommendation to the companies.
NCTM Standard: Algebra
- Understand patterns, relations, and functions
- Represent and analyze mathematical situations and structures using algebraic
symbols
- Use mathematical models to represent and understand quantitative relationships
- Analyze change in various contexts
Primary Mathematical Goals
- Use the formula for the profit-income-expenses relationship: Profit
= Income-Expenses
- Use the formula for calculating income: Income = Number sold x Price
- Read and write formulas written in spreadsheet notion
- Explore "what if" questions on a spreadsheet
- Make recommendations based on data from a spreadsheet investigation
- Create scatter plots and line graphs and interpreting the functional relationships
they represent
