Preparing for Upcoming Presentations

Pairs of students began working on solving the problem posed on Palm Worksheets 5 and 6, related to how the "b" variable changes the location of the parabola on the coordinate plane. Ms. Beaver allowed students 35 minutes of work time, and then shared expectations of the presentation. Students will begin presentations on Tuesday, May1, and presentations will continue throughout the week.

Tonight's Homework: Continue working on Palm Worksheets 5 and 6, and think about ways to make your presentation complete. For those of you who missed class on Thursday, be sure to complete the circled problems on the blue worksheet you received on Friday and be ready to turn it in on Monday.

What Does "b" Do to Parabolic Graphs?

Even though today is national "Take Your Child to Work Day", two thirds of our class attended algebra today. Thank you for coming to algebra! After correcting homework, students began an investigation that will help them understand how the "b" variable in a quadratic equation changes how the parabola appears on the coordinate grid.

Tonight's Homework: Complete the handout you received in class today (Worksheet 4). This information will be very useful tomorrow, as you will be starting on a group project and presentation.

How Does "c" Impact the Shape of a Parabola?

Today's lesson included a brief review of yesterday's homework and time for students to use the handheld computers to assist them in their graphing of several quadratic formulae. The goal for today was to have students discover how the "c" variable changes the location of the parabola on the coordinate grid.

Tonight's Homework: Complete the salmon-colored worksheet (front and back) and the circled problems on the blue worksheet labeled 9.3.

P.S. Hi, Hayley! I hope you are having a great time in Hawaii. See you in a few days. Continue to be safe!

Ms. Beaver Begins Her Teaching Experience in Algebra

Today, Ms. Beaver began teaching the algebra class. She will be teaching about quadratic equations and parabolas for the next three weeks or so. As a part of her university requirements, she is required to give a pretest, so students completed a short 10 item pretest during class today. Ms. Beaver reviewed how to create an x-y data table to generate ordered pairs, and then assigned homework that reinforced this skill as it relates to graphing parabolas.

Tonight's Homework: Complete the salmon-colored paper titled Worksheet 1. Be sure to include at least 5 trials for each data table you create. Also complete the white worksheet that you received in class.

P.S. Aloha, Hayley! I hope you arrived safely in Hawaii. Enjoy your vacation. As you can see, you've completed part of tonight's homework--yeah!

Computing with Rational Numbers, Again

After reviewing last night's homework, students took a 19 item quiz over adding and subtracting rational expressions.

Tonight's Homework: Complete all problems on both sides of the worksheet you received in class today.

Quiz over Multiplying and Dividing Rational Expressions

Students answered 32 questions related to multiplying and dividing rational expressions on today's quiz. The quiz was completed in class, and students who finished early were able to get started on tonight's homework.

Tonight's Homework: Page 697 (68 - 86) and page 826 ( 1 - 3 ).

Mixed Rational Expression Computation

Today, we took some time to review how to compute with rational expressions. Students will need to know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide expressions that include rational numbers. To provide additional practice, students completed some problems from both chapter 9 and chapter 12 (yes, chapter 12!).

Tonight's Homework: Complete the worksheet titled 9.2 C. The last problem is extra credit. In addition, do problems 11 - 32 and 64 in section 12.2 of your book. There will be a quiz tomorrow over multiplying and dividing rational numbers. Another quiz will be given on Friday and that one will be over adding and subtracting rational numbers. Be sure to study!

Adding and Subtracting Rational Expressions

Adding and subtracting rational expressions is very similar to adding and subtracting variable expressions. The trick to computing with rational expressions is that you may combine terms only if the radicals in each term are the same (like √2 + 4√2 = 5√2). Sometimes you will have to simplify the rational expressions before combining terms.

Tonight's Homework: Complete the twenty problem worksheet distributed in class today.

Rationalizing the Denominator

We reviewed some of the shortcuts that you can use to simplify expressions that have square root in them. Looking for common factors and perfect squares are two of the easiest shortcuts you can employ to simplify these types of problems.

We looked at another situation involving square roots, and discovered the square root of a number times itself ends up being the number. (The square root of a times the square root of a is the square root of a squared which is a.) This allowed us to learn about rationalizing the denominator of an expression, which means rewriting an expression in such a way that there is no radical sign in the denominator (which is the preference of all mathematicians).

Class was dismissed at 2:45 p.m. so students could clean out their lockers.

Tonight's Homework: Complete the worksheet you received in class today.

Simplifying Radical Expressions

Multiplying and dividing with square roots is relatively simple, and can be done in two different ways. You can consider the radical sign as one great big set of parentheses, and simplify within first, and then take the square root of the result. Alternatively, you can take the square roots of the number first, and then simplfy. Be sure to read lesson 9.2 and look at the examples.

Tonight's Homework: Read Lesson 9.1, and then do problems 23 - 40, 54 - 64, and 95 .

Tests Returned Today

Students received their chapter 8 tests back today. Scores were either really good or really poor. We spent time reviewing the common errors that were made. Students have through the end of the day on Monday, April 16th, to take the chapter 8 test over.

Tonight's Homework: None, because I feel so lousy! Instead, spend time reviewing for the retake, should you wish to take it, or just DON'T vote for Sanjaya!

Chapter 8 Test Given Today

Students spent the class period taking the test over chapter 8. Some finished in twenty minutes, while others took the entire class period to carefully supply answers to the questions.

Tonight's Homework: Page 502 (1 - 10 ).

Chapter 8 Review

Students spent most of the period working on review problems from tonight's homework assignment, and preparing for Monday's test over chapter 8.

Tonight's Homework: Page 497 ( 1 - 28, columns 1 and 3 only, and 29, 32, and 34 ) . Extra credit is to do any 20 problems from at least four of the sections on pages 494 - 496 (the Chapter 8 review). This, too, is due on Monday.

Happy Easter!

Exponential Growth and Decay Story Problems

As we wind up our study of exponents, please be advised that the chapter 8 test will be given on Monday, April 9th. Because of the track meet today and the fact that the upcoming weekend is family-oriented (Easter), assignments for both tonight and tomorrow night were given today.

Tonight's Homework: Page 822 (8 - 15 )

Exponential Growth Model

Using savings accounts as an example of how money can be compounded, students were introduced to the exponential growth model. This model can be used to describe population growth, savings earnings and loan payments.

Tonight's Homework: Lesson 8.5 ( 6 - 24 even, and 25 - 29, odd )

Exponential Decay

After tossing pennies several time and collecting data on the number of heads that remained, students were introduced to the formula that describes exponential decay. The basics of this topic are covered well in Lesson 8.6, and all students are urged to read this lesson before starting on tonight's homework.

Tonight's Homework: Create a line graph of your experimental data, and then do problems 14 - 22 in lesson 8.6 .