Students will launch the apiary business project by tracing how hive products move from production to customers, noticing where unit rates and percent changes affect pricing, and testing early ideas in a short competitor scenario. They will record observations, generate investigable questions, and leave the phase with a clear picture of the business plan portfolio, sales simulation work, and Buzz & Business Expo expectations.

Students will turn the competitor pricing puzzle into a workable investigation plan by refining a focused question, building a testable hypothesis, selecting a method for collecting ratio and percent data, and creating a clear system for documenting calculations, assumptions, and evidence before the full sales-model work begins.

Students will collect and verify apiary pricing inputs, convert percents to decimals accurately, build traceable pricing records, and test their sales model calculations against peer review and a midpoint quality check before moving into graphing and forecasting.

Students will analyze their apiary pricing evidence, create before-and-after graphs and pricing arguments, test their conclusions through peer and community critique, revise their portfolio materials, and complete a formal presentation checkpoint before the final expo phase.

Students will present their completed apiary business plan portfolio and simulated sales model to community partners at the Buzz & Business Expo, defend their pricing decisions with tables, graphs, and proportional reasoning, and close the project with a concise reflection on strategy, errors corrected, and team organization.