Deadstock - Free Classroom Simulation

Math (Algebra) Grades 9-11 8 roles 53 min 1 class period

A two-room label studio at 6am on drop day. A bolt of fabric weighted flat with shears, the line sheet pinned above the cutting table, the screen-print carousel through the doorway, and the ship-by date taped to the wall.

Four to eight fictional streetwear labels race to the same drop. Every label sews the same two pieces from the same two inputs, and every label's shipment arrives in the wrong mix for what it sells best. Students graph what they can actually build, walk the room and trade the input they are short of, then build their region in the app and pick their cut list from inside it. The engine grades the region and runs the line. Most cash wins, and a second result names the label whose plan came closest to the best one its stock allowed.

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Class Time

53 minutes

Designed For

1 class period

Roles

8 roles

Class Sizes

Four labels (8-13 students), Five labels (10-14 students) - odd count, Six labels (14-24 students), Seven labels (14-24 students) - odd count, Eight labels (16-32 students)

Learning Objectives

6 objectives

Standards

4 standards aligned

Where This Fits in Your Curriculum

This is the Algebra 1 systems-of-inequalities lesson, built for the week you teach shading and the intersection of two half-planes. Students need to plot a point, read a table of values and evaluate an expression. They do NOT need slope-intercept form, substitution, elimination or any algebraic solve - the recipe is chosen so both boundary lines cross at whole numbers a student reads off a 1-unit grid. What it teaches underneath the streetwear is linear programming's first idea, that the best plan sits at a corner, and economics' shadow price, that what one more yard is worth to you is how much more cash your best plan makes with it. Run it after Breaking Even, which graphs lines in the same unit but never shades a region. Also lands for Algebra 1 support sections, Integrated Math I, and any economics elective teaching gains from trade with real numbers attached.

What Students Will Learn

Write a linear inequality in two variables from a recipe and a shipment, with no numbers given.
Graph a system of two linear inequalities by table of values, test a point to choose each side, and outline the region where both hold.
Find the best whole-number plan by checking every corner of the region, rounding down where a corner is not whole.
Explain what one more lot of an input is worth to you, and price a trade from that number rather than from what the input cost.
Re-solve after the market: recognize that changing your stock replaces the region rather than nudging the answer.
Judge a plan as viable or non-viable against the stock actually held, and read a graded region's verdict against the region you drew.

Cases Included

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSA.REI.D.12 - Graph the solutions to a linear inequality in two variables as a half-plane, and graph the solution set to a system of two inequalities as the intersection of the half-planes. GRADED, not assumed: each label enters both boundary lines as two whole-number points each, plus a test plan and a call about whether that plan fits, and the engine compares the solution set the label drew with the label's true region every drop. A region that is not the right set costs the label money.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSA.CED.A.3 - Represent constraints by inequalities and by systems of inequalities, and interpret solutions as viable or non-viable options in a modeling context. Earned by COMPOSITION: the graph sheet prints two inequalities with all six numbers blank, and no sheet a student writes on and no screen during PLAN ever renders a completed one. The teacher worked example on the 50/50 stock does, which is the point of a worked example. Viability is what the line tests - a plan the shipment cannot cover jams.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP.2 - Reason abstractly and quantitatively. The price of a lot is a rate of change in the objective, not a cost, and the game pays for telling those apart.
CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP.4 - Model with mathematics. Two resource constraints, a whole-number decision, and a market that moves the constraints while students work.

Social & Emotional Learning (CASEL)

Aligned to the CASEL framework's core competencies. These are the SEL skills students actively practice while playing.

Relationship Skills The market is structured face-to-face negotiation with a rival under a clock. Every executed deal posts to a ledger the teacher can audit, and printed sentence frames give students who need the words a way in without scripting the outcome.
Responsible Decision-Making A label prices a deal against its own private numbers instead of accepting the first offer, commits one region and one cut list it cannot take back, and owns the verdict the line returns.

Flexible Class Sizes

Four labels (8-13 students)

The smallest room that still has a market. Four labels means two hoodie labels and two tee labels every drop, so nobody is ever without a possible partner. Teams of 2 to 4.

Five labels (10-14 students) - odd count

Allowed, not preferred. An odd count means one label may not find a partner in a drop, about twice in every hundred and twenty label-drops. Never delete a working team to fix it - seat one more if you can, and tell the odd label to price the lot anyway.

Six labels (14-24 students)

The reference class. Eighteen students, six labels, teams of three, one job each with the GRAPHER and PRICER paired. Three hoodie labels and three tee labels every drop.

Seven labels (14-24 students) - odd count

Allowed, not preferred, same reason as five. Measured at seven labels no seat is ever shut out of a drop entirely, so this is the safer of the two odd counts.

Eight labels (16-32 students)

The big-room preset. Eight labels keeps every team at 3 or 4 in a class of 24 to 32, and keeps the market busy enough that a slow negotiator still finds a partner. Above 32 students, teams of 5 with two DEALERS.

How the Game Plays Out

Turn 1: Drop 1

The truck brought the wrong mix

"The name on your door says what sells best. Why is your best plan mostly the other piece?"

Turn 2: Drop 2

The flip

"Your prices changed. Which of yesterday's moves is now the wrong move?"

Turn 3: Drop 3

The truck came short

"The two lines cross at a negative number. So where is the best plan?"

Roles Your Students Will Play

Click any role to see their background and what they are trying to accomplish.

DROPCLOTH

A two-room studio that prints everything twice, slightly out of register, and calls the misalignment the point. Whichever side DROPCLOTH draws, the truck brings it the wrong mix on purpose.

Colourway BONE, COBALT and FLUO. Your side is on your shipment card, and it flips every drop. Same recipe, same caps and same starting cash as every rival.

Goals

Graph what your shipment can actually build before you say a price out loud.
Trade for the input you are short of, and sell the one you cannot use before the drop closes.
Commit a cut list from inside a region you drew correctly.

FLATBED

A flat-stock outfit that runs one screen, one pass, and refuses a second. Whichever side FLATBED draws, the shipment is heavy on the thing it needs least.

Colourway CARBON, SAFETY and CHALK. Your side is on your shipment card, and it flips every drop. Same recipe, same caps and same starting cash as every rival.

Goals

Graph what your shipment can actually build before you say a price out loud.
Trade for the input you are short of, and sell the one you cannot use before the drop closes.
Commit a cut list from inside a region you drew correctly.

HANDCART

A studio that measures itself by how few minutes the line stands still. Whichever side HANDCART draws, the truck did not read the line sheet.

Colourway TICKET, PINE and AMBER. Your side is on your shipment card, and it flips every drop. Same recipe, same caps and same starting cash as every rival.

Goals

Graph what your shipment can actually build before you say a price out loud.
Trade for the input you are short of, and sell the one you cannot use before the drop closes.
Commit a cut list from inside a region you drew correctly.

BOLLARD

Everything gets finished twice here and nothing ships with a raw edge. Whichever side BOLLARD draws, it holds a shipment built for somebody else's line sheet.

Colourway DEEP TEAL, ACID and BONE. Your side is on your shipment card, and it flips every drop. Same recipe, same caps and same starting cash as every rival.

Goals

Graph what your shipment can actually build before you say a price out loud.
Trade for the input you are short of, and sell the one you cannot use before the drop closes.
Commit a cut list from inside a region you drew correctly.

CULVERT

Bound seams, faced hems, and a label sewn where nobody will see it. Whichever side CULVERT draws, it gets a truck that thinks otherwise.

Colourway RUST, DEEP BLUE and CHALK. Your side is on your shipment card, and it flips every drop. Same recipe, same caps and same starting cash as every rival.

Goals

Graph what your shipment can actually build before you say a price out loud.
Trade for the input you are short of, and sell the one you cannot use before the drop closes.
Commit a cut list from inside a region you drew correctly.

STANCHION

Cut flat, cut square, out the door on the date promised. Whichever side STANCHION draws, the mix on the truck is not the mix on the line sheet.

Colourway CHALK, GRAPHITE and SIGNAL. Your side is on your shipment card, and it flips every drop. Same recipe, same caps and same starting cash as every rival.

Goals

Graph what your shipment can actually build before you say a price out loud.
Trade for the input you are short of, and sell the one you cannot use before the drop closes.
Commit a cut list from inside a region you drew correctly.

SPILLWAY

Every seam gets looked at twice before it leaves the table. Whichever side SPILLWAY draws, its shipment argues.

Colourway CHALK, DENIM and CLAY. Your side is on your shipment card, and it flips every drop. Same recipe, same caps and same starting cash as every rival.

Goals

Graph what your shipment can actually build before you say a price out loud.
Trade for the input you are short of, and sell the one you cannot use before the drop closes.
Commit a cut list from inside a region you drew correctly.

PARAPET

Measure, cut, measure the cut. Whichever side PARAPET draws, it is short of exactly the thing its best piece eats most.

Colourway VIOLET, STONE and EMBER. Your side is on your shipment card, and it flips every drop. Same recipe, same caps and same starting cash as every rival.

Goals

Graph what your shipment can actually build before you say a price out loud.
Trade for the input you are short of, and sell the one you cannot use before the drop closes.
Commit a cut list from inside a region you drew correctly.

Hand Each Student Their Own Sheet

One click on the teacher dashboard prints a dossier for every role - background, goals, key facts, and their confidential briefing - plus the primary-source packet and a vocabulary sheet. Print them, or save as PDF, so each student reads their role on paper instead of huddling around one screen. The app still runs the votes and the action; the paper just carries the reading.

Primary Sources

Every role includes real historical documents. Students read them because they need the information to make their case.

Key Terms Students Will Learn

constraintinequalitysystem of inequalitiesfeasible regionboundary linehalf-planecorner pointtable of valuesround downlabel sideshadow priceplan efficiencyre-markdeadstockdroplotprint passcut listjam

After the Game: Debrief Questions

Hoodie labels: in drop 1 your best plan before the market was mostly tees. Tee labels: yours was mostly hoodies. Why?
Suppose a hoodie label paid $100 for a lot of print passes. Its thinking: a hoodie sells for $50 and takes one pass. So one pass must be worth $50. What is wrong with that thinking?
Did any label commit the corner it found before the market? If so, what did it cost?
Did anyone use a shortcut: one fixed price per yard, reused all game? Where would a shortcut like that stop working?
One company owning every shipment would earn more than any room of rival labels. Why can rival labels never earn that much together?
Why would you ever sell to a rival? And where else does this happen?

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