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Are They Similar?

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In this problem, students are given a picture of two triangles that appear to be similar, but whose similarity cannot be proven without further information. Asking students to provide a sequence of similarity transformations that maps one triangle to the other focuses them on the work of standard G-SRT.2, using the definition of similarity in terms of similarity transformations.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Illustrative Mathematics

Linear Equations Game

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Students groups act as aerospace engineering teams competing to create linear equations to guide space shuttles safely through obstacles generated by a modeling game in level-based rounds. Each round provides a different configuration of the obstacle, which consists of two "gates." The obstacles are presented as asteroids or comets, and the linear equations as inputs into autopilot on board the shuttle. The winning group is the one that first generates the successful equations for all levels. The game is created via the programming software MATLAB, available as a free 30-day trial. The activity helps students make the connection between graphs and the real world. In this activity, they can see the path of a space shuttle modeled by a linear equation, as if they were looking from above.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Stanislav Roslyakov

Algebra I Module 4: Polynomial and Quadratic Expressions, Equations, and Functions

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In earlier modules, students analyze the process of solving equations and developing fluency in writing, interpreting, and translating between various forms of linear equations (Module 1) and linear and exponential functions (Module 3). These experiences combined with modeling with data (Module 2), set the stage for Module 4. Here students continue to interpret expressions, create equations, rewrite equations and functions in different but equivalent forms, and graph and interpret functions, but this time using polynomial functions, and more specifically quadratic functions, as well as square root and cube root functions.

Material Type: Module

Walk the Line: A Module on Linear Functions

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Prepared with pre-algebra or algebra 1 classes in mind, this module leads students through the process of graphing data and finding a line of best fit while exploring the characteristics of linear equations in algebraic and graphic formats. Then, these topics are connected to real-world experiences in which people use linear functions. During the module, students use these scientific concepts to solve the following hypothetical challenge: You are a new researcher in a lab, and your boss has just given you your first task to analyze a set of data. It being your first assignment, you ask an undergraduate student working in your lab to help you figure it out. She responds that you must determine what the data represents and then find an equation that models the data. You believe that you will be able to determine what the data represents on your own, but you ask for further help modeling the data. In response, she says she is not completely sure how to do it, but gives a list of equations that may fit the data. This module is built around the legacy cycle, a format that incorporates educational research feindings on how people best learn.

Material Type: Unit of Study

Author: Aubrey Mckelvey

Buying a Car

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The emphasis in this task is on the progression of equations, from two that involve different values of the sales tax, to one that involves the sales tax as a parameter. It is designed to foster the habit of looking for regularity in solution procedures, so that students don't approach every equation as a new problem but learn to notice familiar types.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Illustrative Mathematics

2.NBT Many Ways to do Addition 2

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This is a task from the Illustrative Mathematics website that is one part of a complete illustration of the standard to which it is aligned. Each task has at least one solution and some commentary that addresses important asects of the task and its potential use. Here are the first few lines of the commentary for this task: Materials For each student: * A large index card * A pencil Action Part 1 The teacher will put up the following addition problem: \begin{align} 24 &\ \...

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Illustrative Mathematics

Grade 8 Module 4: Linear Equations

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In Module 4, students extend what they already know about unit rates and proportional relationships to linear equations and their graphs.  Students understand the connections between proportional relationships, lines, and linear equations in this module.  Students learn to apply the skills they acquired in Grades 6 and 7, with respect to symbolic notation and properties of equality to transcribe and solve equations in one variable and then in two variables.

Material Type: Module

Grade 7 Module 3: Expressions and Equations

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This module consolidates and expands upon students’ understanding of equivalent expressions as they apply the properties of operations to write expressions in both standard form and in factored form.  They use linear equations to solve unknown angle problems and other problems presented within context to understand that solving algebraic equations is all about the numbers.  Students use the number line to understand the properties of inequality and recognize when to preserve the inequality and when to reverse the inequality when solving problems leading to inequalities.  They interpret solutions within the context of problems.  Students extend their sixth-grade study of geometric figures and the relationships between them as they apply their work with expressions and equations to solve problems involving area of a circle and composite area in the plane, as well as volume and surface area of right prisms.

Material Type: Module

A-REI Reasoning with linear inequalities

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This is a task from the Illustrative Mathematics website that is one part of a complete illustration of the standard to which it is aligned. Each task has at least one solution and some commentary that addresses important asects of the task and its potential use. Here are the first few lines of the commentary for this task: The following is a student solution to the inequality \frac{5}{18} - \frac{x-2}{9} \leq \frac{x-4}{6}. \begin{align} \frac{5}{18} - \frac{x-2}{9} & \le...

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Illustrative Mathematics

Fishing Adventures 3

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This task is the last in a series of three tasks that use inequalities in the same context at increasing complexity in 6th grade, 7th grade and in HS algebra. Students write and solve inequalities, and represent the solutions graphically. The progression of the content standards is 6.EE.8 to 7.EE.4 to A-REI.12.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Illustrative Mathematics

New Boxes From Old

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Students find the volume and surface area of a rectangular box (e.g., a cereal box), and then figure out how to convert that box into a new, cubical box having the same volume as the original. As they construct the new, cube-shaped box from the original box material, students discover that the cubical box has less surface area than the original, and thus, a cube is a more efficient way to package things.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Author: Mary R. Hebrank

Who Robbed the Bank?

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Students use DNA profiling to determine who robbed a bank. After they learn how the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is used to match crime scene DNA with tissue sample DNA, students use CODIS principles and sample DNA fragments to determine which of three suspects matches evidence obtain at a crime location. They communicate their results as if they were biomedical engineers reporting to a police crime scene investigation.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: Denise W. Carlson, Frank Burkholder, Malinda Schaefer Zarske