In my capstone class for future secondary math teachers, I ask my students to come up with ideas for engaging their students with different topics in the secondary mathematics curriculum. In other words, the point of the assignment was not to devise a full-blown lesson plan on this topic. Instead, I asked my students to think about three different ways of getting their students interested in the topic in the first place.
I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).
This student submission again comes from my former student Austin Stone. His topic, from Algebra: finding the slope of a line.
How could you as a teacher create an activity or project that involves your topic?
Using “pull back” toy cars, you can create a fun little activity that students can compete in to see who wins. Students can be put into groups or do it individually depending on how many cars you have available. The idea of the activity would have students pull back the cars a small amount and record how far they took it back and how far the car went. After doing this from three or four different distances, the students would then graph their data with x=how far they took it back and y=how far the car went. Then the teacher would tell the students to find how far back they would need to pull for the car to go a specified distance by finding the slope of their line (or rate of change in this example). After students have done their calculations, they would then pull back their cars however far they calculated and the closest team to the distance gets a prize.
How can this topic be used in your students’ future courses in mathematics or science?
Students will continually use slope throughout their future math and science classes. In math courses, slope is used to graph data and predict what will happen if certain numbers are used. It is also used to notice observations about the graph such as steepness (how quickly it changes) and if the rate of change is increasing or decreasing. It is also used in science for very similar reasons. In physics, slope is used commonly to calculate velocity and force. In chemistry labs, slope is used to predict how much of a certain substance needs to be added to find observational differences. In calculus, when taking the first derivative of a function, if the slope is negative, then the function is decreasing during that interval and vice versa if it is positive. Slope is also widely used in Algebra II, so learning how to find the slope is very important for future math and science classes whether it be in high school or college.
How does this topic extend what your students should have learned in previous courses?
Students should have already learned how to graph points on the coordinate plane. They can take this knowledge and now not only plot seemingly random points, but now see the relationship between these points. Plotting points is a skill usually learned around 6th grade and is used regularly after that. Also, finding the x and y axis can be used when finding the slope of a line. If you have a function with no points, finding the x and y axis can let you find the slope. Finding the x and y axis is learned in Algebra I so this would be fresh on students’ minds. Finding the slope of a line can be scaffolded with finding the x and y axis in lectures or in PBL experience. Also refreshing students on how to graph not only in the first quadrant, but in all four quadrants could be a quick little activity at the beginning of the PBL experience.
Reference:
Mean Green Math 