Eighth Graders Develop Product Ideas for Market Equilibrium Project in Math

For their market equilibrium project in math, eighth grade students begin by identifying real-world needs and creating products to meet those needs. Products conceptualized this year range from the practical and possible (a sleeping mask that regulates temperature and a diet pill that actually works) to the silly (a beauty pillow that prevents waking up to a "bad hair day"). After determining the need they saw in the world, it was time for students to crunch some numbers. This project spans three chapters of material covered in eighth grade algebra: creating a table which produces a line with a positive and negative slope, finding the line of best fit for those lines, and then finding the intersection point of those lines. Students were also tasked with finding the market equilibrium of supply and demand graphs. “Yay, math in the real world!” exclaims teacher Ali Frank. “This project has evolved over the years to encapsulate my love of math, economics, and hands-on projects. We spend one full class day discussing basic supply and demand, and then I set the students on a task to create a marketable good. I think this project has piqued the curiosity of students in the field of economics, and it always creates some very interesting goods that have yet to be produced.” MORE PHOTOS