Students investigate how a campus apiary can become a viable business by building a business plan, running a sales simulation, and using ratio and percent reasoning to make pricing decisions. Through tours and partner input from Jacksonville High School Apiary and Neuse Regional Beekeepers, they connect hive products to real local markets and analyze how markup, discount, tax, and commission changes affect profit when competition appears. The work culminates in a student-built portfolio with pricing sheets, graphs, and forecasts that teams present at the Buzz & Business Expo to local business representatives and community partners. Across the project, students strengthen communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and reflection as they explain strategies, revise errors, and defend their decisions with evidence.

Students will use scale factors, unit rates, ratios, and percents to calculate markup, discount, tax, and staff commission for hive products, then show how pricing changes when a competitor enters the market. They will build a business plan portfolio with a pricing sheet, data tables, graphs, and a sales forecast, and use clear sentence structures and evidence-based reasoning to explain their decisions. Students will strengthen collaboration and problem solving by running a sales simulation, revising their work after critique from community partners, and reflecting on math strategies, errors they corrected, and how their team stayed organized. Students will prepare for the Buzz & Business Expo by rehearsing professional presentations and answering questions from local business and beekeeping partners with accuracy, clarity, and confidence.

Students will create a team business plan portfolio for campus hive products that includes pricing sheets, unit-rate and percent calculations, data tables, graphs, and a written sales forecast. During the project, teams will build and revise simulation tools that show markup, discount, tax, and staff commission changes, including before-and-after pricing models when a new competitor enters the market. They will also produce short oral debriefs and rehearsal materials that explain their math strategies, corrected mistakes, and team decision-making in clear sentence structures. By the end, each team will present a polished business plan and simulated sales model at the Buzz & Business Expo to local business representatives, Jacksonville High School Apiary, and Neuse Regional Beekeepers.

Kick off the project with a Hive-to-Market Walkthrough at the Jacksonville High School Apiary and with Neuse Regional Beekeepers, where students trace how honey and other hive products move from production to sale. In teams, students collect real pricing examples, identify unit rates, and predict where markup, discount, tax, or commission changes could affect profit when a new competitor enters the market. Back in class, run a short sales simulation using sample bee products so teams must quickly recalculate prices and decide how to stay competitive. End with a whole-group discussion that surfaces the driving question and previews the final Buzz & Business Expo for local business and community partners.

Host a Buzz & Business Expo where teams set up marketplace-style booths to showcase their business plan portfolio, including a pricing sheet, graph set, and sales forecast for hive products. Students present to local business guests, Mrs. House, Jacksonville High School Apiary partners, and Neuse Regional Beekeepers, explaining how they adjusted markup, discounts, and staff commissions when a new competitor entered the market. Include a short Q&A at each booth so students defend their proportional reasoning, unit rate calculations, and graph choices using clear oral explanations and evidence from their simulation. If possible, add a hive-to-market display or apiary product samples so visitors can connect the math, business decisions, and real bee products.