Next on Making Algebra Meaningful – Dora to the Rescue!
Our goal is to tackle this beast from our expectations:
add and subtract polynomials involving the same variable up to degree three [e.g., (2x + 1) + (x^2 – 3x + 4)],using a variety of tools
and
multiply a polynomial by a monomial involving the same variable to give results up to degree three [e.g., (2x)(3x), 2x(x + 3)], using a variety of tools
My first thought when creating my lessons is how can I get students curious! Sometimes curiosity will come out from Act 1 of a 3 Act math task. Or sometimes it’s from a puzzelly type open activity that makes students struggle.
Here is MY new struggle:
How can I make students curious when teaching collecting like terms, and eventually the distributive property?
Last year’s opener to teach collecting like terms:
And that’s it! Every time I do this kids are confused and ask “Why didn’t we just have the value of x to begin with?”
I want a task that makes us curious and need to use like terms to simplify an expression.
Task 1: Order Up
Task 2: Dora to the Rescue
Here was how our conversation in math class (MFM1P) went…..How many pieces make up this Star wars Lego ship? 
We started with that picture and had a great conversation around Lego.
Then I showed this one.
Does the pool/hot tub have more pieces/less pieces/ or the same? This turned into “boy” Lego vs. “girl” Lego. My personal opinion is its all great…. My 3 daughters are just as excited to play with Yoda as they are with Disney princesses. Girls in the class agreed that they didn’t need their own line of lego!!!
I moved our conversation a little forward with asking Which costs more? And which should cost more?
Answers: Continue reading
I am loving Alex Overwijk’s Knot activity more and more.
Go ahead and read about it!
I’m a huge advocate for having kids get their hands dirty and try things out. This one is particularly awesome because students get to experience how the rope length changes. They get to feel and create that change.
For those of you who don’t have ropes….or use this after the activity as part of a consolidation.
Problem 1- Solving a linear equation.
Act 1
