Supermarkets marketing strategies 101: How to pull the wool over the shopper's eyes

Notice Dial's effort to conceal the  

decrease in the amount by using a 
taller, thinner container.

Another gem from Dan Meyer's repertoire of great lesson ideas. Here's what this particular "lesson" offers.

• The context for the lesson makes for a great story. Your supermarket is out to hoodwink you!

• The math is intrinsic to the context of the problem. The only way to understand the supermarket's strategy trickery is to do the math. Kids will actually want to understand how unit pricing works. This is what I mean by learning the math from the "inside out." That is, the math is embedded in a context that encourages real, non-scripted learning.

• Dan does not offer you a specific plan of action, but rather helpful guidelines. He gives you resources to work with and makes them accessible via download.

• The ideas for the lesson are developed collaboratively online with other math teachers.

• Dan credits his sources.

• Dan ships* his product. 

*An expression coined by Seth Godin that mean you get your idea/project out there so that others can take of advantage of it.
Shipping is fraught with risk and danger. - Seth Godin