​Anjali Phadke's P​ortfolio

During Math, we were learning about graphs, tables, and equations. Right before this poster, we took a quiz that talked about baseball jerseys. “Bill” didn’t know whether to choose “Top Print” or “Print It”. Print It’s cost was 21 dollars per jersey and Top Print’s cost was a start up cost of 45 dollars and then each jersey was 18 dollars. One question on the quiz asked, “When should Bill choose Print It and when should he choose Top Print?” After my partner Alyssa and I talked about our answers, we came up with a solution. Our solution was, Bill should choose Print It when he wants to buy 15 or less jerseys. Bill should go to Top Print when he wants to buy 15 or more jerseys. We came up with these answers based on tables and graphs we made for both. The graphs and tables that we made supported our answers in a couple of ways. From 0-15, Print It had a lower cost than Top Print. From 15 and beyond, Top Print had a lower cost than Print It. One phenomenon we noticed was, that at 15 jerseys, all prices are the same with a cost of 315 dollars. The second question asked, “A company called Value Printing never wants to be the least expensive or the most expensive. It wants to be in the middle. What would the cost be?” After my partner and I talked, we came up with a start up of 15 dollars. Then, each jersey costs 20 dollars. We noticed, as said before, that at 15 jerseys, all prices were the same. So our price and start up cost worked (315 dollars at 15 jerseys).

 

First, we took the quiz. The questions on the quiz were the same questions we had to display on our poster. There weren’t really any set requirements. I believe that our teacher let our minds run freely and let us be creative. We could basically put anything we wanted on the poster. Well, our only real requirement was to convey our answers in a way that we could explain to other people. We had several steps, artistic and mathematical. Mathematically, we decided to make a graph, equation, and a table for our answers to Value Printing, Print It, and Top Print. Our obvious first step was to find the answers to the questions (described above). We made an equation, table, and a graph for each of the companies. All 3 companies did show a linear relationship. This means that for every jersey you buy, the price is increasing by the same amount of money every time. Our final step was presenting the poster. Artistically, we were first given a blank piece of poster paper. Since our minds could basically run free, my partner and I decided to make our poster more creative than all the others. First, we split up the poster paper into 4 sections. There was a section for Value Printing, Print It, Top Print, and the assumptions we made regarding the equations, tables, and graphs. To add a little more creativity, we put fingerprints on the poster. The last step was presenting the poster. We basically explained our whole poster.

 

We had two big struggles during this mini project. These two struggles are the design of the poster and the presentation of our answers in a creative way. We knew that the main focus was the actual math concepts, but we still had to make our poster somewhat creative. We asked ourselves the question of, “How do we show these math concepts so that everyone can understand them?” We thought of this question because of the way people learn. Some people learn based on numbers and data. On the other hand, some people learn with graphs and charts and visual aspects. So we asked that specific question to respect every ones way of learning.

 

We did overcome this challenge. Instead of just focusing on the analytical or visual aspect of learning, my group decided to do both. So, for the analytical learners, we created equations, and tables. For the visual learners, we created the graphs to show the differences and similarities between each of the three companies. The graphs, in my opinion, also helped the visual learners look at the linear relationships between each of the companies. For example, how it is the same price for 15 jerseys.

 

The best thing that I learned during this project was the relationships between the tables, graphs, and equations. For example, one equation is y=18x+5. The 18x part of the equation means that for every jersey that you buy, the price is 18$. You can put in any number for x. X is ultimately the number of jerseys you buy. The +5 part of the equation means that the y-intercept of the equation is 0,5. The y-intercept is when the equation line penetrates the y axis. In other words, at 0 jerseys, the cost is 5 dollars. So, 5 dollars is the start up cost. What is really cool is that the relationship is always linear. This means that every point on the graph goes by the same amount. This is the best thing I have learned.

 

Math may seem useless, but in everyday life, everyone uses math, all the time. Some examples of the math concepts that I have learned are linear relationships and equations. These concepts are all preparing me for the future. “The future” could be referring to high school or medical school, I do not know. I do know that as math gets harder, you will be happy that you learned those math concepts. Engaging in these types of math concepts have made me better understand them. As I am a visual person, making a poster to visually show them has made me better understand the concepts.

 

I have used two qualities in this mini project. One of the qualities I used is Inquiry. We all know math is frustrating, especially when you have to teach it to someone who is your age. This project had my partner and I asking questions about how people learn, what math concepts we had to include, and the way we could present these math concepts. For example, in math class one day, my partner and I asked our teacher about how to present the info. She replied “This was supposed to be a 20 minute poster! But being teenagers, everything has to be perfect for you guys. So, be as creative as you want to be!” So, we asked some of our classmates about their way of learning and we zipped off to making the poster. This project has made me a better inquirer because I have never had to teach people my age. So, I had to ask questions about the way people learn.

 

I also used creativity in this project. As a teenager, everything has to be perfect. So, my partner and I kind of had trouble coming up with an idea that everyone liked. But we learned that pleasing everyone was not possible. So we decided to please ourselves. We came up with the idea of 4 quadrants. There was one quadrant for each company and one quadrant for the assumptions. To add a little more creativity in our poster, we decided to add fingerprints in different colored sharpies. Creativity is taking in everyone ideas, but ultimately creating something that is for you.