This class is such a dream! They are eager learners and deep mathematical thinkers.
In October, this group focused on writing linear equations given situations, graphs, and tables. Students analyzed what the slope of the line meant in context and how they could use their graph to make predictions.
A highlight of the month was teaching the students about dimensional analysis and how to systematically convert rates. You might remember doing this is high school chemistry. The group demonstrated their perseverance when using this technique to convert the units. After a little practice, the class honed their skills when given a nonsensical problem from the Jabberwocky poem by Lewis Carroll and used dimensional analysis to solve it!
The class just finished studying Transformations including Reflections, Rotations, Translations and Symmetry. We study these concepts to develop a link between Algebra and Geometry to help students discover connections between these concepts.
Did you know that a reflection can informally be defined as a shape that is “flipped” or is a “mirror image”, but can formally be explained using an algebraic understanding of perpendicular lines? (Well, our class now knows the formal definition now!)
We are now building off of work students did in 6th and 7th grade using generic rectangles as a tool to multiply multi-digit numbers. In our class, students are using generic rectangles as area models to multiply polynomial expressions. Eventually, students will discover that when done backwards, students will be finding the factors of polynomial expressions. Do you remember factoring quadratics? That’s what your student will be doing very soon!
