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“Polly”nomial

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!

draw a "polly"nomial

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 of some good old-fashioned practice. So, I had them get out a sheet of notebook paper and work out the problems I was going to write on the dry erase board.

Except there was an issue. I got to number nine, and I had asked all the different types of questions that I wanted to. But to stop at nine questions seemed weird.

I had a split second to decide whether I was going to stop at an odd nine questions or if I was going to think of a tenth question on the fly.

I chose the latter. For question 10, I asked my students to draw a picture of “Polly”nomial. I didn’t elaborate.

I just threw the question up on the board to see how my students would take it. When students asked questions, I just shrugged my shoulders and told them that I wanted to see what they would come up with.

Student Drawing of "Polly"nomial
Student Drawing of "Polly"nomial
Student Drawing of "Polly"nomial
Student Drawing of "Polly"nomial
Student Drawing of "Polly"nomial
Student Drawing of "Polly"nomial
Student Drawing of "Polly"nomial
Student Drawing of "Polly"nomial
Student Drawing of "Polly"nomial
Student Drawing of "Polly"nomial
Student Drawing of "Polly"nomial
Student Drawing of "Polly"nomial

More Activities for Teaching Polynomials