I did the first day activity previously mentioned, and I will blog about it, but I'm more excited about how we did piecewise functions today in precalculus. During the previous class we walked through an IRS example and discussed how taxes were calculated and what the graph may look like, and we did a simplified version of it and ended up with a step function for the rates. I went online to find current information.
Today, we learned 3 skills, and I think the color coding went really well. I could refer back to it for each skill, and they could see what parts went where.
Here's what the notes looked like.
I realize it's a bit late now, but here is a blog post I did a year ago on how I taught piecewise functions: http://scottkeltner.weebly.com/1/category/piecewise%20functions/1.html
ReplyDeleteI used foldable graph paper that allowed students to graph each "piece" completely, then sandwich together the portions they needed to use, with respect to the specified domain of each. I hope it helps out. If nothing else, the Krispy Kreme donut example seemed to grab their attention better than the "If a cell phone company charges $0.10 per text message" example my textbook has to offer.
Scott from Kansas
Doughnuts! Who can't get behind that :). Thanks for the idea.
ReplyDeleteMath is really tough. I really do have some problems understanding the concepts. I'm thinking of telling mom that I need high school math/high school mathematics tutoring. I guess 1-1 tutoring could help me.
ReplyDeleteI was inspired by your lesson on piecewise function so I tailored my precalculus lesson on making graphing more colorful :D
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading your blog and it really inspired me to write more on my website:
http://www.numberbender.com/2013/09/10/conquering-piecewise-defined-function/