Market Day 2023
Market Day is both a hands-on Project Based Learning (PBL) math activity that centers around basic economic principles and a community service project.
For the past two days the second graders unleashed their creativity and business savvy as they explored the concepts of supply and demand in a real-world mini-economy project. Second graders have studied the dynamics of an economy and then applied their understanding in the role of an entrepreneur and producer.
The students learned about various entrepreneurs and their products. During math class, students explored the difference between durable and non-durable goods and the types of resources it takes to make a product including natural, capital, and human resources.
Students sold various home-made products from non-edible items such as bracelets, lanyards, and slime to edible items such as cookies, candies, brownies and cupcakes. Students had to share the value of their products with their customers.
Each grade came through the classrooms to shop and browse. After the first day of sales, students had to count the number of tickets they had collected and calculate the dollar amount they raised.
The students had to count their remaining inventory and consider the supply and demand for the products they were selling in order to decide whether to keep their prices the same for the second day of selling or lower the prices in order to raise as much money as they could. Each student had to use the economics vocabulary learned in class to explain his or her decision before changing the price.
With the participation of the entire Powhatan School community, most of the students sold out of their products, and they raised a record amount for this project – $2,084.29 – for the Frederick County/Winchester City Bright Futures Program.
