Introduction
Santa’s in trouble. He’s been quarantined with Covid, is falling behind on orders, a fire started in the cookie bakery and Blitzen is nowhere to be found. The big man needs a little help with getting things back on track and believes you are perfect little elves to assist. Santa needs you to take some of his workload and go shopping for some gifts, so he won’t have to make them himself. He knows it is sort of cheating, but drastic times call for drastic measures. Will you help jolly old Saint Nick or be the scrooge that let Christmas fail?
Task
In order to help Santa, you’ll need to purchase Christmas presents for several members of your math class. Now, Santa doesn’t really deal with money, so he doesn’t have a lot of extra cash on hand, so you’ll be working within a budget. You will be responsible for recording your money spent, including taxes and markups on spreadsheets. You will also need to keep track of any discounts that you utilize. Santa is expecting a detailed analysis of his funds, as well as documentation of where you purchased these items (Santa is always wary of competition). Do this well and Santa might just leave you something extra special under the tree this year.
Process
-
Brainstorm
So who does Santa need you to buy gifts for? He figured out that if you could buy for 5 members of your class and your teacher, it would help him out tremendously. Start by brainstorming likes and dislikes for the people you are choosing to shop for. Don’t worry about actual gifts yet, just things each person might like or not. It could be physical items, places, ideas, whatever comes to your mind when you think of these people. Use this Brain Storming Google Doc. to keep track of all of your ideas. It’s ok if they change or get deleted entirely. You are just getting your initial ideas on paper.
-
Survey
In order to help make this Christmas the best ever, these presents need to be perfect. Create a Google Form that will be taken by all the people you are buying gifts for. Use the information from your brainstorm activity and table to create the questions for this Form. The answers to this Form will narrow down the gift ideas and make shopping for each individual far easier.
After you have completed making your Form, send it to each of the people you are buying presents for and kindly ask them to take it. This data will be very useful to you.
-
Research
When you buy most items, a tax is added to the cost of the item. When stores sell you something, they add a markup to it so that they can make money and stay in business. Sometimes, companies will have products that are discounted. You may or may not be familiar with these red terms, but in order to create a successful budget for Santa, you’ll need to calculate all of these correctly. But why do these terms exist and where did they come from? Use the links in Section A of the resource section to research these terms and answer the questions on this Research Answers Doc.
-
Shopping Time
Using the responses from your Google Form and your new knowledge about taxes, markups and discounts, it’s now time to go shopping. But don’t forget that Santa only had a little bit of cash to give you. Your shopping spree has a maximum amount of $300 total, not per person. You do not have to spend the exact same amount on each person, but you absolutely cannot spend more than $300. You also have to keep in mind that taxes should be included in your total amount.
Remember that Santa wants a detailed budget with taxes, markups, discounts and links to where the gifts were purchased. Use this Shopping Info Doc. to input all of your information and apply the requested calculations. You can also use the links in Section B of the resource section to help you with popular shopping sites. You do not have to use these sites only.
If you need assistance with the calculations, please refer to Section C of the resource section.
Evaluation
-
Completed Brainstorming Document
-
Relevant and Functional Survey
-
Completed and Accurate Research Answers Document
-
Finished Gift List with Appropriate Calculations
-
Separate Work Paper
Webquest Rubric
-
Brainstorming Document _______ / 15
-
Recipient Survey _______ / 15
-
Research Answers _______ / 12
-
Gift List and Calculations _______ / 18
-
Separate Work Paper _______ / 18
FINAL GRADE _______ / 78
AVERAGE _______ %
Conclusion
Fantastic job with your gift purchases. Santa seems very impressed with your knowledge of your classmates and with your thriftiness. I saw him looking over your spreadsheets and he was thinking about offering you a permanent position at the North Pole. Now that Christmas has passed, you have time to reflect on the great job you did. Would you have changed any purchases? What could you have done to save more money? What part of this project did you like best? Like least?
How to save money with coupons
Credits
Resources
Section A
Section B
Section C