Mathematics in a Story - Lemonade for Sale

1. Lemonade for Sale by Stuart J. Murphy is about, four kids, Danny, Meg, Sheri, and Matthew, who sell lemonade in order to fix their Elm Street Kids' Clubhouse, and they have no money. They bet that if they sold 30 or 40 cups per day for a week, they would be able to fix their clubhouse. So they decided to keep track of their sales. Sheri creates a bar graph to look at how many sales they have every day, by putting the number of cups on the side (y-axis) and putting the days of the week on the bottom (x-axis). On the first day, Petey the parrot, squawked at people going by, to tell them about the lemonade sale. They all worked together, as Matthew squeezed the lemons, Meg mixed the sugar, Danny did the ice and poured the lemonade into cups, and Sheri kept track of the number of cups they were selling. On Monday, they sold 30 cups, so Sheri filled in the bar above Monday up to the 30 on the side. On Tuesday and Wednesday, they continued to see their sales of cups of lemonade increase, then they see a huge drop. They see that the juggler down the street is stealing their sales. So, then they invite the juggler to do the act next to the lemonade stand, and then the sales make a giant leap. Also, each cup costs 25 cents, so this also comes in handy when looking at this book in a mathematical sense, in order to calculate more with the information given. 

2. This book illustrates and demonstrates a fun and engaging way to learn graphing and making a profit as well. Sheri made the graph, and the book showed the illustration of the graph with the number of cups representing the y-axis, the dependent variable, and the days of the week representing the x-axis, the independent variable. The graph makes it easier to see the progress of the lemonade stand, and puts the cups sold into perspective. It teaches that information can be condensed so that a growth or loss can be seen, and that is what happens. The kids see the graph grow, and then drop, and that signifies that something happened. They figure out what the problem was, and why they stopped making a profit, and they came up with a solution to remove the competition and increase their profits. Graphing is applicable to all that we do in math, especially now as we start to learn derivatives, and it is interesting to see the concept of graphing be explained through a children's book. Also, the book displays profit/revenue, which is similar to the lecture today with the cost function. The book shows a much more simple version of making a profit, as each cup of lemonade costs 25 cents, so with this, it is easy to then calculate the amount of profit that they are making over the week, and each day. This takes the graphs, and puts real numbers on it, to make it more real. This concept of profit and revenue, can then be applied to other examples, and this also shows the connection that graphing can have to profit and revenue. The way that the book introduced these two concepts was really clear, and one can see how it all comes together. 

3. Literature is definitely an effective way to teach and learn a mathematical concept, because it takes numbers and applies them to a story, or something real that one can connect with on some level. We used that example early in the class to learn about exponential growth, and it made the concept easier to wrap my head around. Sometimes, knowing the numbers only goes so far, but with more application, and seeing math applied in real life situations (in this case children's stories) makes the math more real and understandable. It makes math more real, when one can see how it applies in day-to-day life, and is not just a concept on a chalkboard. Literature is definitely an added bonus to teach and learn a mathematical concept.