This systems of equations project will challenge your students to create their own food truck and sustain a profitable business.

Real life applications are an essential part of any curriculum, but can often intimidate students. This activity offers scaffolding to support students as they learn to solve word problems and navigate the problem solving process.

This real world algebra application is perfect for group work and collaboration. It can also be used as a stand-alone summative assessment for solving systems of equations!

This systems of equations project includes:

✅ 3 pages of student material

✅ room for extensions of this project

✅ scaffolded questions and organizational templates

✅ critical thinking and reflection questions

Your students will:

✅ conduct “market research” and create a business plan

✅ create linear equations

✅ determine and analyze solutions

✅ solve linear systems using substitution and elimination

☆Since this project is completely open-ended there is no answer key☆

How is this real life application different from regular word problems?

Most word problems have one question that needs to be answered and little follow up or detail. My real world math activities stretch one idea or scenario into a meaningful performance task that can be used as a full assessment of student learning.

This application is more than interpreting the question and quickly getting to the answer. Your students will be challenged to think critically about each scenario and defend their solutions.

The best part? All of the topics are relevant and modernized (because kids don’t care about calculating CD sales or cell phone minutes anymore).

How I have used this real world algebra application:

⭐ Early finishers: I have used this as an extra credit project throughout the entire linear functions unit for my early finishers.

⭐Small Group: Your students can work together to complete this activity and have discussions about different strategies for solving systems of equations.

⭐ Individual: I have used this activity as an assessment for my Algebra 1 students. It usually takes them about 3-4 class periods to complete on their own.