Wax-On, Wax-Off

Last night while performing the nightly parental juggling of homework, baths, and reading, my second daughter asked if she could play Webkinz. I really do not have a problem with my children playing Webkinz, provided they limit their time to 20 - 30 minutes, and it does not become an issue with their siblings. It does force the player into decision making and problem solving and I feel it is worth their time. Unfortunately for her, my oldest daughter was already playing. With her the indomitable spirit like "Molly Brown", my second oldest daughter's eyes lite up and she asked, "can we play some math games on your computer?" As proud as any nerdly father, whose child just figured out a rubric cube, I looked down at my little cherub, patted her head, and said "of course". Now mind you, she had played a flashcard game the previous day on the a-plus math site, and enjoyed the simplicity of its interactivity. I thought it was time to test another site called cool math 4 kids. Jackpot!!! Cool math 4 kids is not unlike many math sites out there, except, it has a terrific game called lemonade stand.

The goal in this game will be to make as much money as you can within 30 days. To do this, you've decided to open your own business -- a Lemonade Stand! You'll have complete control over almost every part of your business, including pricing, quality control, inventory control, and purchasing supplies. You'll also have to deal with the weather, which can be unpredictable, which will play a big part when customers are deciding whether or not to buy your product.
Other factors which will make or break your business is the price you charge and customer's satisfaction. As you sell your product, people will decide whether or not they like it, and how much they like or dislike it. As time goes on, they'll start to tell their friends, neighbors, and relatives (hence, your 'popularity'). Sell a good product for a good price, and you'll build business over time; overcharge for inferior products, and you'll be out of business sooner than you'd think.

As I sat and watch my second grade daughter pick up on the process and concept of this game, I was reminded of a very famous scene from the 1984 movie The Karate Kid, where the main character Danny Larruso (Ralph Macchio) was told by Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) to wax a car using clockwise motions to apply the wax, and counter-clockwise motions to remove the wax. After hours of waxing, he confronted Mr. Miyagi about was educated on how waxing a car was teaching him martial arts. The Lemonade Stand was like waxing the car. My daughter played the game for 25 minutes and completed the entire 30 day simulation. In the end, she actually lost money, but it gave me an opportunity to watch how my daughter learns. She was completely engaged by the experential nature of the task, continuously asking questions and making decisions. On one particular day during the simulation, the weather was 59 degrees with over cast. I commented, "phew, its pretty cold, what do you think?" She immediately responded, "people were not going to be very thirsty on such a bad day." I helped her understand that when people want to buy something, they usually call that demand, and when you want to sell lemonade, you call that supply. She slowly began to pick up an elementary understanding of supply and demand. She was learning economics and all she knew was she was playing a game (Wax-on, Wax-off).

I then began to think of how such a game could become a wonderful part of a classroom math or economics lesson at any level. Imagine, teams of students begin the simulation and blog about their teams decision making process. Maybe teams blog about why they choose the price, the quantity of supplies, or the ingredients? Then, students could create a graph, and plot the demand curves and the supply curves. Students could read each others blogs and make comments or suggestions from their own experiences. Furthermore, the class could create a wiki, and begin to collaborate as a class, identifying the 10, or 20, or 50 best ways to make money selling lemonade. Teams could construct a "how to book" for lemonade stands. Finally, teams of students could present their findings to a class, simulating a presentation to a ficticous board of directors. The possibilities for such fun is endless.