Baking cookies around Christmas time is a tradition in many kitchens. It's also a tradition in Dion Borkowicz's Lakeland University managerial accounting class.
Students enrolled in managerial accounting offered this fall in the evening and online through Lakeland's Sheboygan Center made cookies for a class project that covers many of the concepts taught as part of the course.
"You might not think baking cookies would be useful in an accounting class, but this project is quite useful," said Borkowicz, who typically teaches this course at Lakeland's Milwaukee Center.
The course includes studying direct material, direct labor, allocating overhead, contribution margins, break-even analysis and evaluating potential profit.
"The project is a fun way for students to use and apply terms and concepts taught throughout the semester," Borkowicz said.
Each student team creates a PowerPoint presentation, showing their manufacturing (baking) process, and prepares job cost cards which track all expenses. The information is then used to calculate contribution margins, the break-even point and potential profits.