Today I learned how to use paper folding to create an ellipse. Years ago, I had my students use paper folding to create wax paper parabolas. Oklahoma ended up changing their Algebra 2 standards, so I haven’t thought much about the activity in quite a while. Now that I’m teaching Pre-Calculus, I will have to …
Algebra Activities & Resources
I really like this powers of i task involving factorials from Mark Dugopolski’s Elementary and Intermediate Algebra. Sadly, our Oklahoma standards do not include factorials, so the problem isn’t as accessible to my Algebra 2 and Pre-Calculus classes as I would want it to be. If your students also need help understanding factorials, I have …
I created this exponents chart that lists the first 8 powers of each of the numbers from 2 to 9 for my students. I thought it might also be of use to use and your students. We started reviewing exponent rules in Pre-Calculus today. We’re doing this in preparation for our exponentials/logarithms unit which is …
Several years ago, a summer workshop I was part of was centered around learning to write problem based assessments for math class. The group I was in was tasked with writing an Algebra 2 level PBA. My group chose to write our assessment over logarithms. Here’s the Logarithms Problem Based Assessment that my group came …
I created this Parts of a Radical Poster several years ago when I was teaching Algebra 1. I wanted to create a visual reminder for my students of the different vocabulary words that describe the different parts of a radical. I wanted to highlight the words coefficient, index, radical symbol, and radicand. I designed this …
I shared this shared factors puzzle on twitter recently, but I thought I should share it on my blog as well. Shared Factors Puzzle Each side of the square shares a factor with each of its neighboring sides. Determine the missing values that make this statement true. This would be a great task for including …
I’m back today with a fun, new puzzle called The Splice is Right Puzzle. This puzzle is from the book Test Your Math IQ by Steve Ryan. I was able to borrow the book for free from the Internet Archive’s online lending library. I highly recommend this site for checking out various books before you …
I created this naming polynomials poster several years ago as a way to both remind my students of the rules for naming polynomials and to decorate my room with my favorite thing – math! Now that I’m reorganizing things on my blog since changing to my own domain name, I have realized that I have …
I want to share a factoring quadratics practice activity I created for my Algebra 2 students. In the Oklahoma math standards, students are first exposed to factoring quadratics in Algebra 1. However, they are only exposed to factoring quadratics where the leading coefficient is 1. These are called monic quadratics. Thus, my Algebra 2 students …
Yesterday, I got the urge to create something. Creation is one of my favorite parts of my job. I love to put in some time and effort to create an activity for my students to use. I find not only the process of creation to be re-energizing but also the act of seeing students all …
I want to share a combining sets challenge activity I created for my Algebra 2 students. My brain has finally started letting me think about next school year. Of course, I’m not thinking about it TOO much yet. For one thing, this school year is still ongoing, at least for a couple more weeks. Due …
I gave this “Polly”nomial task to my Algebra 2 students. The results did not disappoint. And, it made grading a somewhat boring assignment much more interesting! A couple of months ago, my Algebra 2 students were working on polynomials. There was ~10 minutes left at the end of class, and they were in dire need …
This lovely exponent task is from Mathematics for the College Boards by Rich Barnett (Copyright 1967 AMSCO). Because each problem in the matching task involves the variable m and the numbers 2 and 3, the task really gets to the bottom of whether students understand the role played by exponents and coefficients. This is the same …
I created this find the flubs activity to give my Algebra 2 students some extra practice with set notation and interval notation as well as number lines. This was the perfect review before beginning domain and range!
This past year was my first year at my new school. Or, my old school if you consider the fact that I’m now teaching at the school I graduated from. My classroom is right next door to our super-talented art teacher, Shelley Self. She’s one of the most passionate and thoughtful educators I have ever …
I ran across this PDF titled “If the IRS had discovered the quadratic formula…” while searching for something else related to quadratics. Kudos to Daniel J. Velleman from Amherst College for brightening my day!
I really, really like this rational expression problem from Blitzer’s Pre-Calculus book. I will definitely be using it with my Algebra 2 students when we do complex fractions! In one short sentence, five words or less, explain what (this complex fraction) does to each number x.
I’m really looking forward to using Amy Gruen’s Exponent Puzzles in my Algebra 2 class this year. I’ve already printed off a copy so I don’t forget to use them! These exponent puzzles are going to make the perfect introduction to logarithms!
The last time I taught Algebra 1, I used Step Puzzles by Naoki Inaba to introduce the idea of arithmetic sequences. I tweeted about it, but in the craziness of packing up my classroom and house to move last summer they never made it up on my blog. I was first introduced to the amazing …
For years, I’ve had it in the back of my mind and on many a to do list to create a typed version of my naming polynomials speed dating cards to share! My first set was created with index cards. I wrote the polynomials on the front of the index cards with magic marker. This …
Yesterday, after spending a bit of time laminating and cutting out the cards for the trig open middle task I posted about yesterday, As I was looking through the Open Middle tasks for complex numbers, I got the idea of creating a task involving the powers of i (imaginary numbers). I was shocked at first …
I want to convince you why dividing polynomials using the box method is my favorite method for dividing polynomials. After taking a 2 year hiatus from teaching Algebra 2 to dabble in teaching physical science and chemistry, I’m back at it this year. One of the things I really missed about teaching Algebra 2 was …
I created this set of 12 basic functions posters to accompany the 12 Basic Functions Challenge Activity for my Pre-Calculus Classes. I decided the posters deserve a page of their own so they can be more easily found and downloaded. Each one of these posters represented one of the 12 basic functions identified in our …
I’m really pushing the box method this year in my Algebra 2 classes, so Christie Bradshaw’s area model puzzles were a perfect introduction to the box method before we jumped into factoring using the box method!
I first experienced the All Tied Up in Knots activity for exploring systems of equations at a Common Core workshop I attended in the summer of 2013. I finally tried the activity in my classroom with my Algebra 2 students, and it was an awesome introduction to solving systems of equations. All Tied Up in …