Created by Alec Buckley, Jenna Montalbano, Jessica Stuart, & Alyssa Hogan
Algebra project – appropriate for 10-11th th grade (Algebra 2)
Mathematics topics: exponential equations that models a real-world context; calculating the total amount of money earned after any given year; using Excel in order to sum annual incomes to find the total amount of money earned after any given year; using data to analyze the different situations and determine possible pros and cons for each scenario
Social justice issues: During our community visit, we noticed quite a difference in socioeconomic status of people in the local community. In a two mile span, we noticed trailer parks, typical suburban neighborhoods, and a number of farms. These differences reflect the many different plans students have for their futures. We wanted to incorporate some statistics from the local community into our lesson; so when we found out that only a small amount of the local community’s citizens have above a Bachelor’s Degree, we decided to not have the students deal with any data above a Bachelor’s Degree. We also used data from local community and 4-year colleges that students would be familiar with as well as using the median income of the local community. Our lesson attempts to inform the students on the various potential options after high school with regards to the different annual incomes that different degrees offer and taking into account the money it costs to attend college. The predominant expectation in today’s majority culture is for students to attend a four year university after graduation from high school. Since the local community is a predominantly white community, these pressures are somewhat present in the lives of students, which is another reason for them to see other potential options available to them.
solving world problems 