Don't leave this task on the shelf — use it is assess middle schoolers understanding of patterns. Participants try to discover a pattern in the number of bricks and planks used to make shelves. They then match descriptions and equations of certain relationships regarding the shelves with their graphs.

Concepts

proportional reasoning, constant of proportionality, linear equations, graphing linear equations, linear equations applications

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Additional Tags

math

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Instructional Ideas

• Provide manipulatives, such as Lego blocks, for learners needing assistance

Classroom Considerations

• Learners need to be able to identify graphs for equations of the form y = b and y = mx
• Note that the task uses the terminology against rather than versus (e.g., "The number of bricks against the number of shelves")

Pros

• Uses discrete graphs rather than continuous graphs
• Includes rubric

Cons

• Inconsistent formatting of variables (regular versus italics)
• Rubric uses unexplained abbreviation

Common Core

8.EE.B.5 MP2 MP3 MP6 MP7