MFM2P - Day 6 2015 (Starting Quadratics)

Today's warm up was our 2nd counting circle. We started at 50 and went up by 7. I told them they could take their time and count on their fingers if needed. We did a lot of stopping today so that I could ask how they added 7. We saw how to break 7 down into numbers that allowed them to get to a multiple of 10 then add however much was left. We also talked a bit about the pattern in the units digits, which I tried to make them notice by the alignment of the numbers I wrote on the board.

After the warm up we moved on to quadratics, starting with this handout. They found their squares and recorded side length and area then found the pattern (1st differences) and pattern within the pattern (2nd differences). They made a scatter plot (it's not a line!) and then used graphing calculators to come up with an equation - mostly for practice using the calculators as they really could have figured this one out themselves. We consolidated a bit...

We also introduced some new vocabulary:

This was a bit rushed as I will be at the board office tomorrow, but needed them to know enough to get through the work I am leaving for them tomorrow. One of the really nice things about spiralling is that time isn't normally an issue. If an activity takes longer than anticipated, it is not a big deal. So today was an exception... I'm sure I will make up for today by taking a bit longer to go over things on Wednesday.