Decision Matrix

What kind of chocolate chip cookie do you like?

Some are crisp and dip well into milk. Some are gooey. Some have molasses, some have a nutty flavor from browning the butter. And then there's the chocolate! Dark, semisweet, milk. With all of these possibilities, how do you decide which is the best overall?

That's where a decision matrix can help.

To teach this lesson, I bring to class a variety of mass-produced cookies. The students come up with the qualities to compare, and they sample the cookies to determine the scores in each category.

I ask them to use a decision matrix when determining their recommendation for their formal reports, and this is a fun way to help them see how it works.