This project asked the 8th graders in Math C classes to take on a "Market Research Analyst" job. They were told they study market conditions to examine potential sales of a product or service and help companies understand what products people want, who will buy them, and at what price.
Students became Marketing Analysts for a large bottled water company in the United States and had to decide which countries to expand into with their product. Level 1 of this task was to input data into a table in scientific notation for 10 other countries. Then, they decided which outside countries consume the most and least gallons of bottled water and compared three countries' numbers to the United States.
Level 2 was to analyze the countries' data per capita. To do this, the students had to use their knowledge of division. They then found which two countries consume the most and least bottled water per capita and compared the United States' data with three countries again. At this point, students were asked what they noticed. They were asked for two reasons why the United States would use more bottled water than another country and two reasons as to why it would use less. As Marketing Analysts, the students then decided which of the 10 countries their company should expand into and why.
The final challenge was to reflect on the advantages of looking at the amount consumed per person per day instead of the total amount of bottled water. Students also had to consider why bottled water consumption may vary per person. To wrap up the project, they were asked what other product's usage/consumption would interest them and why.
This was clearly a very in-depth project. It was also a great way for the 8th graders to see how math is applied in the workforce and even a specific type of job.
Sometimes it is hard to make the connection between what is learned in class and the outside world, but this Marketing Madness project expanded students' eyes to see math's important application.
