MILLION DOLLAR PROJECT

A Webquest Designed by McKenzie Laubach

4^th – 6^th Grade Math Teacher

E-mail: mlaubach@warrennet.org

Homepage: http://www.warrennet.org/oxford/laubach

$$ INTRO $$

		You have been given a bank account with one million dollars. The catch is that you have to spend all of it within 4 weeks. Can you do it ???
	The Million Dollar Project is designed to teach the value of money and how much a million really is. Students will be computing with large numbers, writing checks, and keeping balance records. They will be using electronic resources to research products and calculate costs.

$$ TASK $$

Your task is to spend as much of the one million dollars as possible without going over.

If you want to use the money there are some other rules you also have to follow:

* All your purchases must be E-Bay "Buy It Now" items.

* You may buy no more than 5 of any one item.

* You may not buy any houses and you may not buy more than one of any mode of transportation (ex: boat, car...).

* You must write a check for each purchase you make.

* You must keep track of your checking account balance as you make purchases.

* All purchases must include 6% New Jersey sales tax in the price. You do not need to include shipping for this project.

* You must keep a log of all your purchases and quantities.

* You must make a poster to present your purchases.

$$ PROCESS $$

Step One: Learn About Your Resources

Go to E-Bay and learn how it is set-up. To do this, you will need to click the E-Bay link above. You will go there and fill in the required information on your resources task sheet. You MAY NOT enter any data into the E-Bay site. DO NOT enter a bid. If this rule is broken you will lose points on your project.

RESOURCES TASK SHEET

Step Two: Make Your Purchases

Remember that your purchases will have to be items that are "Buy It Now" in E-Bay Stores. You can find these items by clicking the E-Bay Link below. You MAY NOT enter any data into the E-Bay site. DO NOT enter a bid. If this rule is broken you will lose points on your project. You may not buy more than one of any mode of transportation (Ex: car, boat, etc...).

Remember that you have ONE MILLION dollars to spend!! Buy expensive items!!

As you select your purchases, log the item, quantity and cost on the purchases worksheet. Remember to use the "Buy It Now" price. You will also have to calculate the cost with tax on the purchases worksheet, but you should do this outside of the tech lab so that you can spend your time searching.

PURCHASES WORKSHEET

Then copy and paste a picture of your item into AppleWorks so it can be saved to be printed. If this does not work well, do not panic. The only pictures required to be printed are those of your 5 most expensive items for your presentation.

Each night after you search, your homework is to write a project check for the item or items you chose and turn it in to your teacher.

PROJECT CHECKS

Subtract the item cost from your account balance on your account record sheet.

ACCOUNT RECORD SHEET

Step Three: Present Your Findings

Use your pictures, account records, and purchases worksheet to create a poster to present your work to the class. You will have to address any strategies that you used to make your purchases. Your presentation should include your five most expensive purchases. Also discuss your final totals and any difficulties you ran into when completing your million dollar project.

$$ EVALUATION $$

Your work on this project will be graded based on the rubric provided below.

Grade (out of 5)	Background	Accuracy	Bookeeping	Presentation
5	All information from "Learning about Resources" was complete and justified; each item had a picture; the find your own items were unusual as indicated.	The resulting balance was from $0 to $10; the $1,000,000 limit was not exceeded.	All checks were written; balance record was calculated accurately and had all checks recorded; purchases records were accurately kept.	All required elements were addressed; poster was complete and explained the project very well; poster was well designed.
4	Most information from "Learning about your Resources" was complete and justified; most items had pictures; the find your own items were completed or everything but the find your own items were completed.	The resulting balance was from $10 to $500.	All checks were written; account and purchase records were kept but there may have been a few (no more than 8) computational errors; all checks were recorded.	Most the required elements were addressed in the presentation; poster was complete and explained the project well.
3	More than half of the information from "Learning about your Resources" was complete and justified; more than half the items had pictures.	The final resulting balance was from $500 to $2,000.	Most checks were written; there were no more than 15 computational errors in the purchases and/or account records.	More than half the required elements were addressed in the presentation; poster was complete and explained the project.
2	Some information from "Learning about your Resources" was complete; some items had pictures.	The final resulting balance was from $2.000 to $10,000.	Some checks were written; there were more than 15 computational errors in records.	Some required elements were addressed in the presentation; the poster was done but showed little evidence of research.
1	Almost no information from "Learning about your Resources" was complete; no item pictures were given.	The resulting balance was from $10,000 to $500,000	Almost no checks were written; almost all computations had an error.	Presentation addressed almost none of the required elements or poster was handed in without evidence of work.
0	Resources task sheet was not completed or handed in.	Student's resulting balance was over $500,000.	No checks were written; account and purchase records were not kept or handed in.	No poster was handed in or no presentation was given.

You will get a score for each category above.

Then your total score will be divided by 20 (the total possible points) to get your percentage grade.

This will be part of your tech lab/project grade for the marking period.

Remember: If you break the rules by entering any data in E-Bay it will result in a loss of points.

$$ CONCLUSION $$

**This is to be completed after listening to all the presentations and seeing all the posters.**

Your entire conclusion must be recorded on lined paper or typed. This includes your original guesses and all calculations you do to get the actual answers.

Think about what you were able to buy with your $1,000,000.00. Use this knowledge to hypothesize about the following questions.

* How many desktop computers do you think you can buy with $1,000,000.00?

* How many Ford Mustangs do you think you can buy with $1,000,000.00?

Now use the links to get the actual answers. Show all steps you did to get your answers.

* How many computers can you buy with one million dollars?

LINK