Education Technology


Exploring Supply and Demand

Activity Overview

Students will use a collection of information gathered by a store's marketing director to create supply and demand functions. The functions will help her make a decision about the price that should be set for an upcoming sales event. Students will graph the information and explore how price affects supply and demand.

Before the Activity

Prior to the activity the teacher should make the handout available. The teacher may want to review the handout to make sure they are familiar with each keystroke sequence required. The teacher may want to review some key terms prior to beginning: price, supply, demand, equilibrium point, slope-intercept formula.

During the Activity

This was written to be a student-centered activity that can be completed alone or in groups. I would suggest that teachers stop at select points to discuss answers as a whole class. This will allow students to share their responses as well as provide a check point for students to confirm their responses.

After the Activity

At the close of the activity students could share their responses with the entire class. The teacher may also want to use the key terms to have a short quiz. In addition students could find real data and use it to determine supply and demand of a product that is of some interest to them.