Thought 43: Time is Money 💵

How can we predict our finances for the future?

My last blog post of PLP 9 is about our last Scimatics project, Time is Money. For this project, we created small businesses, sold a product of service, and used linear functions to calculate our future profits.

For my small business, I decided to do a meal prep business. For those who don’t know, meal prep is basically a pre-portioned meal consisting of a balance of macronutrients and calories. Bodybuilders and dieters often consume meal preps because they get the same amount of calories, protein, fat and carbs in every meal. I decided to do this business because I really like to cook, and I have been wanting to eat healthier lately.

For my specific meal, I made chicken with rice and caprese salad. When I went to go buy the ingredients, I forgot to buy plastic containers, so I just added the price of them to my expenses. It took me around 40 minutes to make the meals, and I sold 4 of them to my brother for $28. I valued my expenses at $21.84, leaving me with a profit of $6.16.

After that I used linear functions to track the future expenses and profits of my business. We used the formula “y = mx + b” to create an equation to represent my future finances. The equation ended up being “y = 9.33x -867.” This means that I would make $9.33 an hour and my starting costs are $867. We can predict future finances with this equation because once you can see the equation on a graph, you can add extra lines to represent other things, such as how much money you would make in a year, and find the intercept to find that answer. Then, I put my equation into a graphing calculator to visualize my equation. After that, I made a slideshow video explaining my future finances. 

Curricular Competencies

Understanding and Solving

This competency is about using multiple strategies and techniques to find solutions. I showeed this in my graphs when I created multiple lines to represent different milestones, such as the salary of my business in 1 year, and comparisons to other jobs.

Communicating and Representing

I showed this competency during my video, when I brought up my graphs and equations, explained them in my voice overs, and labelled them on screen, to inform my audience about my learning.

Connecting and Reflecting

The goal for this skiI is to be able to connect mathematical concepts to personal interests. I think I showed this in my video and graphs by comparing my earnings to other jobs, and by explaining the environmental impact of my business. I also showed this in my topic choice, because I do have an interest in cooking.