Combining Like Terms--A Conceptual Approach

Many students have demonstrated that they are having some difficulties understanding when and how to combine like terms in expressions and equations. To help make this less confusing, we talked about a banking situation, where loose change, stacks of money and drawers of money are all present. If each of these is represented by a variable, then it is easy to understand that you cannot combine drawers of money with loose change.

Tonight's Homework: Complete both sides of the two worksheets that were handed out in class today. These will be collected on Wednesday, October 31st.