This project I designed in collaboration with the teachers of history and the 21st century shop starts with deconstructing and looking closely at the parts of different generations of phones as the entry point to a sophisticated inquiry of the external costs of cell phone production and consumption, resulting from shifts in design and manufacturing over time. This created a rich context for students to practice modeling with mathematics. Students developed media and financial literacy as they dug into cell phone provider advertising campaigns, websites, and third party reviews to explore "which cell phone plan is best for your family?" guided by empathy interviews and analyses of their families' current phone bills. In 2016, after visiting our class, a team from the Agency by Design Initiative at Harvard Graduate School of Education's Project Zero published this project in the "Exploring Complexity" section of Chapter 5, "Maker-Centered Teaching and Learning in Action," in the book, Maker-Centered Learning: Empowering Young People to Shape Their Worlds.