First Friday Five in March

It’s March. Spring is on the way. Unless you’re in Phoenix, where it’s 90°. In that case, you’re probably wanting winter back. (Claim also invalid if you’re below the equator…in which case enjoy the winter that’s slowly making its way from us to you.)

No matter the season, Desmos Activity Builder is always in style!

This week, it’s all Algebra and Algebra 2. Enjoy.

Understanding Graphs: True/False Activity

When you click through on our adaptation of Nicola Waddilove’s activity, you may notice that all 12 questions refer to the same graph—a decreasing red line. Do not be deceived! This is a rich, interesting, and challenging set of questions involving solutions to equations and inequalities.

Racing Dots and The Great Collide

We also adapted Jon Orr’s activity, The Great Collide to make Racing Dots. Jon uses gifs and timers; we use sliders. Either way, if you thought you’d never cheer for a red dot to overtake a blue one, these activities will make you and your algebra students reconsider.

Match My Polynomial

Justin Tolentino keeps your Algebra II and Precalculus students productively occupied with the challenge of matching graphs of polynomials. Quartics, anyone?

Writing Rules: Linear, Quadratic, and Exponential

Contrasting linear, quadratic, and exponential functions based on tables and graphs is what

this activity

is about—a higher order of thinking than the “Writing Rules” title would suggest. If you have algebra students who have worked with each of these function families, ask them to identify the underlying patterns, and to put these patterns to work.