Modeling Prompt

As students are considering the situation, prompt them with the following questions, as necessary:

• "What are some variables you should consider?"
• "Can you think of mathematically different methods to distribute the money?"
• "What information would be helpful to know to compute the bonus for each employee?"

Tell students that they can make up the information they need to compute specific bonuses for 2 different methods and to apply them to the situation. In the proposal, students should compute the specific dollar amount each employee receives as a bonus.

If there is time, encourage students to try generalizing any values they invented to use variables instead.

A project at a large company was very successful, and the company made more money than expected as a result. Your boss has given you the task of coming up with different methods to distribute bonuses to the 5 employees that directly worked on the project. There is a total of $8,000 available to distribute.

The method for distributing the money will be shared with the entire company, so it is important that the employees feel the distribution is fair.

1. Make a proposal with at least two different methods for your boss to choose from. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Then give your recommendation and provide an argument in its support.
2. For each of the methods you propose, which of the five employees is most likely to complain about the method being unfair? How would you justify the method to this employee?

As students are considering the situation, prompt them with the following questions, as necessary:

• “Which of these variables should you consider?”
• “Can you think of mathematically different methods to distribute the money?”
• “What additional information would be helpful to know to compute the bonus for each employee?”

Tell students that they can make up any additional information they need to compute specific bonuses for 2 different methods and to apply them to the situation. In the proposal, students should compute the specific dollar amount each employee receives as a bonus.

If there is time, encourage students to try generalizing any values they invented to use variables instead.

A project in a large company was very successful, and the company made more money than expected as a result. Your boss has given you the task of coming up with different methods to distribute bonuses to the 5 employees that directly worked on the project. There is a total of $8,000 available to distribute.

Here is some information about the employees:

employee	job description	hours working on project (per week)	annual salary	job experience
A	receptionist	40	$30,000	1 year
B	administrative coordinator	30	$30,000	5 years
C	manager	40	$80,000	3 years
D	sales representative	40	$50,000	10 years
E	sales representative	20	$20,000	2 years

1. Make a proposal with at least two different methods for your boss to choose from. Outline the advantages and disadvantages of each method. Then give your recommendation and support your argument.
2. For each of the methods you propose, which of the five employees is most likely to complain about the method being unfair? How would you justify the method to this employee?