Alyssa, a grade eight student, was looking through the school newsletter when she saw an ad placed by a local farmer looking for students to pick strawberries. The farmer has offered to pay the students a daily rate of $15.00
plus $3.00 for each quart basket of strawberries they pick.
Alyssa is interested in applying for a job but she would like to model the information with some type of a linear
equation so she can figure out how much money she could make picking strawberries in one day. Alyssa is
confident she can pick 50 quarts of berries in one day. Alyssa can write an equation in slope intercept form to
represent the information she knows.
First, write down the information given in the ad:
$3.00 for each quart of berries picked plus $15.00 per day.
Next, write down the slope-intercept form of an equation.
Y = mx + b
Next, for the given information, what do the letters represent?
y = amount of money earned
m = amount paid for each quart of berries picked
X = number of quarts of berries picked
b= amount paid for each day worked
Next, fill in the known values into the equation.
SO
Us
y=
WH
Then, using the equation, fill in 50 for x and simplify to calculate the total amount of money.
u
y
Finis!
Alyssa can earn $
in one day picking strawberries.