Of all Algebra topics, quadratics is by far my favorite. What I love most that students start the unit SO intimidated and by the end are old pros. So much growth happens during this unit. I love seeing my students grow more confident as they learn how to solve quadratics in different ways.
I've written a ton about having fun with quadratics and the activities we do during this part of our curriculum. In this post I want to highlight a few activities just about the Quadratic Formula.
First, is this Quadratic Formula template that we use in class. It scaffolds the formula with spaces for A, B and C and a "skeleton" for students to use to structure their formula.
I print a bunch for our classroom warm up basket. Students know to take one on their way into the room and use it to solve the quadratic I shine on the board.
My friend Kara from Learning Made Radical and I have been working on partner scavenger hunt activities. The one above is a Quadratic Formula partner scavenger hunt. *A GOOGLE Slides version is now included in the download.
Pairs of students get 2 clocks and 2 unique sets of cut-outs. Both partners start with their "START" cut-out. The quadratic functions are different but the answers are the same if both partners solve correctly.
If student answers are different, they work together to find the error. Once the partners settle on an answer, they look for this answer on the top of another cut-out. They then each solve their next unique problem until their answers match.
Displaying student work has worked really well in my classroom for boosting student confidence. We have "The Fridge" - an area where students can use magnets to hang their graded papers.
We use those super strong magnets so by the end of the year piles are stacked on top of each other! It's great. On days when a student may not be feeling very confident, it's really nice to be able to point to the wall and say, "yes you CAN do it."
I'm also just a huge fan of math class décor in general. Posters, word walls, anchor charts, lists of prime and square numbers, graph and function examples, anything that works to build student confidence, background knowledge and lower what I like to think of as "math affective filter" (ie: math anxiety).
This Quadratic Formula Math Pennant combines student work and classroom décor. Students get to color a little too, which is always fun.
My students like this solving quadratics chain activity because I build in extra credit. There are 12 quadratics to solve but I tell students they only need to solve 10 to earn a 100%. Most go on to solve more to get up to a 105%. I know, I'm cheap, but I can't be giving out 120s! :)
Here's my former student Omar holding up his paper chain. Please excuse the hideous word wall in the background... it has since been majorly updated!
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| Quadratic word problems digital math escape room |
I love, love, love teaching quadratic word problems. This new quadratic word problems digital math escape room has students answering questions about rocket launch projectile motion problems. None of the equations are factorable, so students have to either use the Quadratic Formula and the axis of symmetry formula or their graphing calculator to solve. Questions in this escape room ask students to:
-Find the total time the rocket is in the air
-Find the rocket's maximum height
-Find the time it takes the rocket to reach maximum height
-Determine the height of the rocket's launch pad
-Find the height of the rocket at a given time
In this post I wanted to highlight a few fun quadratics activities. I wrote more about the activities we do in class, including the posters and anchor charts that help through this unit, in the post Fun With Quadratics.
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| Free math resource library |
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