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Introduction to Exponential Functions
This lesson begins with a review of linear functions and segues nicely over its fifteen examples and problems into a deep study of exponential functions. Linear and exponential growth are compared in an investment task. Data tables are...
Curated OER
Comparing Exponentials
Growing money exponentially is the context of this scenario that asks learners to compare investments in two certificate of deposit accounts. Your young investment analysts will learn about the exponential characteristics of money...
Curated OER
Equal Factors Over Equal Intervals
Exponential functions and their growth rates are explored concretely using tables in a collaborative task. Then the successive quotient is explored algebraically.
Curated OER
Carbon 14 Dating, Variation 2
Your archaeologists begin this task with a table of values to estimate the time passed based on the half-life of Carbon 14 remaining in a plant. They then move on to find when a specific amount of Carbon 14 is present in the same plant,...
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
National Debt and Wars
Take a functional approach to the national debt. Learners collect information about the national debt by decade and plot the data. They determine whether an exponential curve is a good fit for the data by comparing the percent changes...
Annenberg Foundation
Skeeters Are Overrunning the World
Skeeters are used to model linear and exponential population growth in a wonderfully organized lesson plan including teachers' and students' notes, an assignment, graphs, tables, and equations. Filled with constant deep-reaching...
Curated OER
What Functions do Two Graph Points Determine?
Your algebra learners write linear, exponential, and quadratic equations containing the same two graph points in this collaborative task.
Curated OER
Rising Gas Prices – Compounding and Inflation
Financial literacy skills and exponential models are connected by the compound interest formula in this task centered on inflation calculations. Collaborative learners get experience collecting data from the given websites and exploring...
Curated OER
Illegal Fish
Your young fishermen learn about exponential function growth by interpreting the pieces of the given equation within the context of numbers of fish in a lake.
Curated OER
Carbon 14 Dating in Practice II
Your archaeologists combine proportional reasoning with exponential functions in a real-life task centered on Carbon 14 dating.
Curated OER
Carbon 14 Dating in Practice I
Analyzing and evaluating exponential functions will help your archaeologists find the amount of Carbon 14 remaining in a plant in this real-life task centered on carbon dating. Learners will also be introduced to the concept of...
Curated OER
Basketball Bounces, Assessment Variation 2
This un-scaffold summative assessment tasks learners to use the height of a bouncing basketball, given the data in graph and table form, to choose the model that is represented. Learners then use the model to answer questions about...
Curated OER
A Saturating Exponential
Your learners analyze the familiar model of a cold beverage warming when it is taken out of the refrigerator. The general form of the equation and its graph are presented. Learners learn about the specific pieces of the function by...
Curated OER
Newton's Law of Cooling
Your Algebra learners analyze and solve an exponential equation in this popular, real-life model of the cooling of a liquid.
Curated OER
Population and Food Supply
What does it mean for something to grow exponentially, and how does that compare to linear growth? This activity tries to help learners gain an understanding of these concepts while modeling real-world problems. Linear and exponential...
Curated OER
Forms of Exponential Expressions
Your young physicists analyze the forms of four equivalent exponential expressions representing an amount of a radioactive material in a substance. They show how each expression is equivalent to the others and what aspects of the decay...
Curated OER
Extending the Definitions of Exponents, Variation 2
Introduce the concept of exponential functions with an activity that extends the definition of exponents to include rational values. Start with a doubling function at integer values of time, then expand table to include frational time...
Curated OER
Sandia Aerial Tram
Your learners analyze a table of real-life data in order to write an equation that best models the information. Exponential, quadratic, and linear rates of changes are all possibilities in this task.
Curated OER
Basketball Bounces, Assessment Variation 1
This highly scaffolded, summative assessment tasks learners to choose the model that represents the height of a bouncing basketball given the data in graph and table form. Learners then use the model to answer questions about the...
Curated OER
Logistic Growth Model, Explicit Version
Via the concrete setting of estimating the population of the US, your algebra learners are introduced to a logistic growth model. Comparing and contrasting logistic, exponential, linear and quadratic models, to see which fits the data...
Agile Mind
Rabbit populations
In this real-world problem about the rapid growth of rabbit populations, students must analyze two different scenarios and create mathematical models to represent them. They use their exponential models to answer questions about the...
Curated OER
US Population 1790-1860
Your young population scientists analyze a table of values, write a model to represent the real life data, finish the table of data and predict future populations in a collaborative, real-life activity.
Illustrative Mathematics
Lake Algae
Introduce learners to exponential growth with this real-world problem about algae that is rapidly spreading across a lake in a city park. The task presents the rate of growth and an end value and asks learners to determine what happened...
Education Institute
Four Mathematics Lessons for Grade 9
These four lesson plans build algebra skills for working with numbers in exponential form and for examining triangles. Be aware that in the text, scientific notation is referred to as index notation and the laws of exponents as the laws...