Sweet Spot Math

An end-of-year Algebra 1 project where the math actually earns its place.Your students design three small businesses — a smoothie booth, a spirit hoodie sale, and a Valentine candy-gram fundraiser — and use linear, quadratic, and exponential functions to figure out the optimal price for each and project profits into the future. Across 4–5 class periods, all three Algebra 1 function families show up because the problem demands them, not because they were bolted on to fit the curriculum. Here's wh

Your students think they know division — until they hit 0 ÷ 0. This discovery-based mini lesson uses cognitive conflict to help students reason through why 0 ÷ 0 is indeterminate, not just memorize a rule. Includes a rich extension connecting to algebra and the foundational idea of limits. THE LESSONThis 20–45 minute inquiry-based lesson creates genuine mathematical discovery by pitting two familiar rules against each other: "Any number divided by itself is 1" → so 0 ÷ 0 = 1? "Zero divided by an