Friday 2 March 2012

Linear Equations With Playdough-Math 9






Playdough Partner Activity
Be creative with play dough!

  • Students are to use playdough to create their own patterns to demonstrate a linear relation. Example:

  • Each student designs 3 separate figures to show the pattern of his or her design.
  • Then the partners exchange seats and determine their partner’s pattern.
  • Collaboratively, they are to represent the relationship in a table of values and determine an equation for each pattern.
    • Playdough adds a 3-dimensional element extending students’ practice beyond traditional paper and pencil method.
    • This activity was completed on day three during the linear relations chapter as a review and “check for understanding” of the first two lessons of this unit.
    • Interesting observation: some students found it more difficult to come up with their own creative pattern from scratch than when provided the first part of a pattern and asked to continue that pattern (as in the textbook). I wonder if I asked the students to repeat this playdough activity another day, would they feel differently once they had this experience under their belt? I may try that…