Illustrative Mathematics
Telling a Story With Graphs
Turn your algebra learners into meteorologists. Students are given three graphs that contain information about the weather in Santa Rosa, California during the month of February, 2012. Graph one shows temperatures, graph two displays the...
BW Walch
Solving Systems of Linear Equations
Solving systems of equations underpins much of advanced algebra, especially linear algebra. Developing an intuition for the kinds and descriptions of solutions is key for success in those later courses. This intuition is exactly what...
Illustrative Mathematics
Logistic Growth Model, Abstract Version
Here learners get to flex some serious algebraic muscles through an investigation of logistic growth. The properties of the constant terms in the logistic growth formula are unraveled in a short but content-dense activity. Moving...
Curated OER
Algebra 2 Desmos Graphing Project
Encourage class members to get creative with functions. Pairs write their names and draw pictures using a graphing application with a collaborative graphic project. The resource provides the requirements for the project, as well as a...
West Contra Costa Unified School District
Graphing Linear Inequalities Sort
Learners first determine the slope-intercept and standard forms of inequalities given graphs, and then determine key features of the graphs.
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...
Illustrative Mathematics
Fishing Adventures 1
Often inequalities exist in many real-world contexts but young math learners struggle with understanding how to represent that relationship in a simple equation using an inequality. This activity focuses on the basic concepts by using...
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
The Canoe Trip, Variation 1
Your river sportsmen will explore an example of paddling upstream as they build functions modeling speed and time in terms of the speed of the current. They then use their algebraic models to interpret features of the function related to...
BW Walch
Solving Systems of Linear Inequalities
One thing that puzzles a lot of young algebrists is the factors in a word problem that are taken as "understood". This presentation on solving systems of linear inequalities does a great job walking the learner through how to tease those...
Illustrative Mathematics
Paying the Rent
Learning how a bank account works is a useful tool. The exercise in the resource is to deduct rent from a checking account and create an equation from a description. Participants then graph the balance of the bank account versus months...
CCSS Math Activities
Smarter Balanced Sample Items: 6th Grade Math – Target G
Making money and saving money turn into high interest topics for sixth graders. Grade 6 Claim 1 Item Slide Shows use these topics in a presentation with math practice problems. The questions require applying knowledge of algebraic...
David Pleacher
Candy Math Fun
Few things can motivate children to learn like the promise of a sweet and tasty treat. Given a bag of M&M®s, Skittles®, or other colorful candy, students first predict the contents of the bag before counting the pieces, creating a...
Curated OER
Narrow Corridor
Buying a new sofa? Learn how to use the Pythagorean Theorem, as well as algebra and graphing techniques, to determine whether the sofa will fit around a corner (which I'm sure you'll agree is a very important consideration!).
Illustrative Mathematics
Bike Race
A graph not only tells us who won the bike race, but also what happened during the race. Use this resource to help learners understand graphs. The commentary suggests waiting until the end of the year to introduce this topic, but why...
Curated OER
Fast Talker - Ch 2 project
Tongue Twisters?! Create scatter plot graphs based on timing fellow classmates saying tongue twisters. Then investigate, display, and analyze the relationships based on functions. Wrap up this activity by making a poster or other...
Illustrative Mathematics
Chocolate Bar Sales
In this real-world example, algebra learners start to get a sense of how to represent the relationship between two variables in different ways. They start by looking at a partial table of values that define a linear relationship. They...
Curated OER
US Airports, Assessment Variation
Determining relationships is all part of algebra and functions. Your mathematicians will decide the type of relationship between airports and population and translate what the slope and y-intercept represent. The problem is multiple...
University of North Texas
Graphing Piecewise Functions
Piecewise functions are the hodge-podge of algebra. Here, pupils watch as each graph is created and then pieced together to make a function. The first example creates a graph step-by-step, while the second problem posts a graph and has...
Illustrative Mathematics
Transforming the graph of a function
This activity guides learners through an exploration of common transformations of the graph of a function. Given the graph of a function f(x), students generate the graphs of f(x + c), f(x) + c, and cf(x) for specific values of c. The...
Ms. Amber Nakamura's Mathematics Website
Algebra Project
What would your dream house look like? A cottage? A medieval castle? High schoolers enrolled in Algebra design the perfect house while using slopes to write equations for various aspects of the project.
Curated OER
Jeopardy
An unusually challenging Jeopardy-style game is here for your charges. All sorts of high-level algebraic terminology, concepts, and problem solving are embedded in the game. There is even a Final Jeopardy clue. I have found these...
Point Pleasant Beach School District
Parabola Project
Class members select a picture that contains a parabola and construct a drawing of it using function graphs in the quadratic project. Individuals restrict the domains of the functions to create a more accurate drawing. They then submit a...
Illustrative Mathematics
US Garbage, Version 1
An interesting example of a discrete function and how it is applies to the real world. This could easily make a good collaborative lesson with an environmental science class. Practice reading a table and drawing a scatter plot make up...