Lesson 11

Skills for Modeling with Mathematics

These materials, when encountered before Algebra 1, Unit 5, Lesson 11 support success in that lesson.

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Lesson Narrative

The purpose of this lesson is to practice some skills that students will be expected to use in the associated Algebra 1 lesson:

  • Check if a relationship is linear or exponential (by subtracting and dividing successive outputs).
  • Create a scatter plot using technology.
  • Create a model to fit the scatter plot, even if the data is a bit messy.

Although students aren’t engaging in the full modeling cycle in these activities, they are building up some of the skills that are needed to successfully model situations like these with mathematics (MP4). These skills include deciding on an appropriate type of model, constructing a model, and seeing how well the model fits the data.


Learning Goals

Teacher Facing

  • Given a table, decide whether a linear or exponential model is better.
  • Revisit how to make a scatter plot from a table of values.
  • Use a table with data that suggests an exponential model to approximate growth factor.

Student Facing

  • Let’s model some situations with mathematics.

Required Materials

Required Preparation

There is an opportunity in the synthesis of the activity “Which Model?” to demonstrate and give students a chance to practice creating a scatter plot for a given table of values using technology. If you’re planning to do this part, prepare to make devices available and practice how you will demonstrate.

CCSS Standards

Addressing

Building Towards

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Additional Resources

Google Slides

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PowerPoint Slides

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