Pre-Calculus Lesson Plans

Students explore maximum and minimum points, slopes and tangents. For this Pre-Calculus lesson, students solve optimization problems and find rates of change.

Students identify positive and negative angles using the Unit Circle. In this pre-calculus lesson, students identify the different angles on a unit circle using the coordinate plane and the four different quadrants as a guide. They calculate the basic trigonometric functions.

Students explore scatter functions. In this pre-calculus lesson, students model data, evaluate the function and use their model to interpolate or predict end behavior of the function. The lesson employs the use of a graphing calculator.

Students explore real-life applications of conic sections.  In this Pre-Calculus/Trigonometry lesson, students view and identify application of conic sections in Library of congress images.  Students view the image and determine which conic is involved and what application is represented. 

Students identify and graph ellipses. After a teacher led discussion on shapes created when intersected by a plane and the use of conic sections, students create a graphic organizer containing the information. A United Streaming video is shown to explore conic sections. Using a string and oak tag, students participate in activities to create an ellipse. They discuss properties and formulas for the created ellipses.

Students investigate step functions.  In this Algebra II/Pre-calculus instructional activity, students examine various taxi fare schemes and model the fares with step functions by making use of the calculator’s greatest integer function’s step function properties. 

Students explore an optimization problem.  In this Pre-Calculus lesson, students investigate a problem in which the distance between three points is minimized in order to determine the location of a switchboard.  Students use Geometer’s Sketchpad to explore and generate data, and use that data to hypothesize a function to describe the problem. 

Students investigate the fundamental notion of a limit.  In this Algebra II/Pre-calculus lesson, students analyze a real-world business scenario to explore limits by looking at trends in data. 

Pupils explore an optimization problem.  In this Pre-Calculus instructional activity, students investigate a problem in which the distance between three points is minimized in order to determine the location of a switchboard.  Pupils use Geometer’s Sketchpad to explore and generate data, and use that data to hypothesize a function to describe the problem. 

Students explore optimization problems.  In this Pre-Calculus/Calculus/Algebra II lesson, students use Geometer’s sketchpad to investigate the dimensions of the largest rectangle that can be inscribed under a parabola.  Students use their findings to solve optimization problems.