These Algebra 1 projects will challenge your students to think outside the box! Your students will connect what they have learned throughout the school year to real world scenarios.

These middle school math performance tasks are more than just interpreting the question and quickly getting to the answer. Your students will need to think critically about each scenario and defend their solutions.

Ready to add problem solving skills to your classroom every day? Grab these no prep middle school math daily warm ups and exit tickets!

Algebra 1 Projects Included ⬇️

Solving Inequalities Landscape Design Project

You are a landscape designer enlisted by a family to redesign their backyard. Your clients have asked you to design a space for an inground pool, patio, and surrounding gardens. You will need to build inequalities to make sure that your design stays under the client’s budget of $75,000.

Skills assessed:

✅ Understanding inequality symbols and how they relate to real life scenarios

✅ Solving multi step inequalities

✅ Creating inequalities from word problems

✅ Understanding that solutions to inequalities are a range rather than one value

Linear Equations Family Vacation Project

You are tasked with the responsibility of planning your family’s vacation for next summer. You will need to use your knowledge of linear functions to budget and plan your trip. Each of the following sections will help you organize your trip, but it is up to you to figure out the details.

Skills assessed:

✅ Writing linear equations in slope-intercept, point-slope, and standard form

✅ Rewriting formulas and literal equations to solve for a missing value

✅ Finding x- and y-intercepts

✅ Solving and graphing linear functions

Parallel and Perpendicular Lines City Development

You have been asked to create the map of a famous fictional place to give to the author or producer. Use your creative judgment to design the best representation of the map. You may include notable landmarks and roads.

Skills assessed:

✅ Writing and graphing linear equations in slope intercept form`

✅ Graphing horizontal and vertical lines

✅ Plotting points on a coordinate plane

✅ Identifying types of slope

✅ Identifying slope and y-intercept from an equation in slope-intercept form

Types of Slope in Real Life Project

Your students are tasked with finding real-life examples of positive, negative, zero, and undefined slopes then creating the tables and graphical representations. They will then present their final project in a unique way.

Skills assessed:

✅ Identifying types of slope

✅ Finding slope from tables and graphs

Systems of Equations Food Truck Project

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

Skills assessed:

✅ conduct “market research” and create a business plan

✅ create linear equations

✅ determine and analyze solutions

✅ solve linear systems using substitution and elimination

How I have used these Algebra 1 projects:

⭐ Early finishers: I have used these as extra credit projects throughout an entire unit for my early finishers.

⭐Small Group: Your students can work together to complete these projects and have discussions about different strategies used for solving each problem.

⭐ End of Year Assessment: I have used these activities as an assessment for my Algebra 1 students. It usually takes them about 2-3 class periods to complete on their own.

Do these algebra projects replace a standard unit assessment or test?

They can, but they don’t have to. I always recommend giving your students multiple opportunities to show they understand a concept to get the full picture.

Tests will give you valuable information about a student’s study skills and foundational knowledge, but real world math projects show whether a student can think critically, creatively, and defend their decisions using math.

Looking for more real world applications? Get all 16 Algebra 1 activities with the bundle!