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 comes from my former student Ashlyn Farley. Her topic, from Precalculus: exponential growth and decay.
The most current example of exponential growth and decay is with the global pandemic, Covid 19. One example is that The Washington Post wrote an article stating that “The spread of coronavirus boils down to a simple math lesson.” The article goes on to explain what exponential growth is and how that applies to Covid 19. Another website, ourworldindata.org, has a graph of the daily new cases of Covid 19. This graph allows one to see the information for multiple countries, and starts on January 28th 2020 until Today, whatever day that you may be viewing it. Many other news sources also have graphs and information on the growth, and decay in some cases, of the pandemic situation. Teachers can use this information to easily make a connection from math class to the real world.
One idea of teaching graphing exponential functions so that it is engaging is to use a project over the zombie apocalypse. The spread of a disease is a common and great example of exponential functions, so although this disease is pretend, the idea can be applied in the real world, like with a global pandemic. Three examples of projects are:
- News Reporters
- This project has the students analyzing data they received to best report to the people who are dealing with the outbreak. It allows students to learn how to read the graphs of exponential functions, understand the functions, integrate technology into the class by creating news reports, and practice an actual career.
- Government Officials
- This project has the students running a simulation of their city. They are to use the statistics of a city to see what the impact of a zombie outbreak would be. After finding the best and worst case scenario, they are to write a letter to the mayor of the city that explains the scenarios so that government can implement plans to keep the outbreak to a minimum. This allows the students a chance to practice analyzing exponential functions, modifying exponential functions, and informing others of the meaning of the functions and modifications.
- Scientists
- This project has the students predicting the outcome of a zombie outbreak, finding a cure, and determining at what point is the zombie population controlled. The students will get practice with the exponential functions, making changes to the functions, finding the point of “control”, as well as creating an action plan.
Each of these projects can be used separately or can be combined to create one major project to learn about exponential functions and their graphs. The goal is to get students excited about learning math instead of dreading it. Math is used daily, even if the students don’t realize it, so the understanding of real-life implications is very important for a teacher to bring into the classroom.
Of the many websites, one key website for educators trying to make lessons engaging is YouTube. YouTube has songs, such as the Exponential Function Music Video, explanatory videos, such as from Kahn Academy, and allows students to create their own videos about the topics. Explanatory videos may help students get a specific idea they didn’t quite understand in class, music is very catchy allowing quick memorization of information, and creating videos shows that the students truly have an understanding of the material. By giving the students multiple types of representation of the material, allows all types of learners a chance to understand the material. Multiple representations is very important in keeping students engaged in the class and having them truly learn the material.
Resources:
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/united-states
Mean Green Math 