Lesson Plan
Introduction to Quadratic Functions (Algebra II)
(.doc file)
During student teaching, I developed an activity for my Algebra II class that used a CBL to introduce the graph of a parabola. By asking students to make predictions about the CBL's graph and to interpret the graph as it related to the real-world situation of rolling a tennis ball up an inclined pipe, I was able to use available technology to help students see the connections between mathematics and the real world, rather than seeing parabolas as a purely abstract idea. We then extended this idea to the theoretical height-time equation of a projectile fired on Earth, and investigated the relationships among the graph, the equation, and the situation.
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