Cindy Johnson’s Conic Cards are the inspiration behind Polar Cards. How she took the time to create 8 decks of conic cards is beyond me, but my students loved and learned from them. In my classroom, my students first perform a Polar Graphs Investigation. This helps them explore the graphs of the polar equations they [...]
You have to love the Internet and the inspiration you get from other teachers. I put together an investigation based on the tweet below. Inspired by a session at #T3IC last year, we used lasers to find "mystery points" (foci) of parabolas based on their lines of reflection. The conversations turned to satellites, flashlights, [...]
In my honors precalculus classes, We performed two experiments. The first is from Math MashUp. I believe the second came from a conference I attended long ago. I had to dust off an old Word file to remember what the targets should look like and had to re-create the targets since I couldn't find the [...]
I was intrigued by Sarah Carter's Domain and Range Cards on her Math=Love blog. I was afraid I would lose a lot of time having my students cut out the cards, so I made border-less cards with functions my Pre-Calculus students will see throughout the year. Pages 1 and 2 are the framework for the [...]
After solving many, many problems that required finding a and b of an exponential equation of the form y = aebt, we needed to review the basics. I found a tarsia puzzle on the web. It didn't include all the types of problems I wanted my precalculus students to review so I found a program [...]
I remember being frightened by the polar coordinate system and graphing equations using it when I was in my students' seats many years ago. With graphing calculators, this doesn't have to be intimidating. I started the unit with an introduction to the polar coordinate system and reminded my students about how intimately familiar they are [...]
It's conic section time in Pre-Calculus. Learning from last year, I added a section on circles. I polled my students prior to spring break and they didn't recall the equation of a circle in standard form. To dust off the rust and get into completing the square mode, I created some Vizual Notes and a [...]
Based on feedback from my geometry students, I've created some Vizual Notes for my pre-calculus classes as well. Sequences and Series This notes sheet can be used to help explain the the vocabulary involved withe sequences and series - explicit, recursive, summation, factorial, etc. It helps prepare students for Arithmetic and Geometric Sequences. Arithmetic Sequences [...]
When businesses, governments and other policy makers prepare to make decisions, they often look at data to find trends. In this activity, we will use data and a graphing calculator, Desmos, or Geogebra to find an equation that best fits the data points. Statista has Global Apple iPod sales (in million units). Plot the data [...]
