Light It Up

I was away for this one.
Students were given this.

The Light It Up Game

 For this experiment, you will need:

• Laser pointer (or a small flashlight)

• Small, flat mirror

• Tape measures (2)

• Wooden block, about 10 cm tall (or a thick book)

• Tape

• Graphing calculator (optional)

Factoring Polynomials and Dividing Polynomials

We started by factoring a quadratic without any instruction. Here are some photos of student work and my work. Some used a "short cut" and others used area = length * width.



 

Next we divided a cubic by a linear function.

Volume = Length * Width * Height

This activity allows students to see the relationship between cubic polynomial equations in expanded form (volume form - y intercept form) and factored form  (length width height form - x intercept form)

Students were put in groups of 4 using visible random groupings.

Each group was given one of these equations.
y = x^3+4x^2+5x+2

Sucker Rates

This is an activity to look at average rates of change (AROC) and instantaneous rates of change (IROC). Students are asked to get a piece of dental floss, a tootsie pop and a measuring device.

Students then collect data every thirty seconds after being told to suck evenly and with the same enthusiasm each time. They then record the circumference at thirty second time intervals.

Here are some photos of "sucking"

Reciprocal Functions

The task today was to look at a function f(x) and its reciprocal 1/f(x). We were looking for connections between the two.

The first thing I asked groups (visible random) to do was graph y = x and the reciprocal y = 1/x. When they were done I had them graph y = x^2 and the reciprocal y = 1/x^2.

Here is what it looks like.

War with Radians

A little review of radians and a review of the special triangles from last year only this year with radians.

 

Experiencing Radians with a Ruler

Students were given the following to do.

1.    Work in pairs.  Pick up 1 piece of cardboard, a circle template, 1 piece of paper tape (about 1 meter in length), and a pair of scissors.     

2.    Cut out a perfect circle.  Wrap the tape around the circle.  Allow the tape to overlap.  Your partner will now cut through the overlap section with the scissors so that the ends just meet.   
       Question:  What measurement of the circle does this cut length of tape represent?                       _
3.    Fold the cardboard circle in four equal sections by folding in half, then in half again.