Thursday, March 29, 2007

Solving One Variable Equations and Uncovering New Quadratic Insights

EXPLANATORY NOTE!

As students were taking the Language Arts MCAS on Tuesday and Wednesday and as we had an altered schedule today due to parent-conferences in the morning, the home nugget that was assigned on Tuesday evening (home nugget #15) is due on Friday March 30.

The lesson is comprised of four different practice sheets with the following titles:
7-2 Practice Solving Two-Step Equations
7-2 Study Guide Solving Two-Step Equations
7-5 Practice Solving Equations with Variables on Each Side
7-5 Study Guide Solving Equations with Variables on Each Side

Students and Parents should be assured that this lesson is adequate to have spanned three night's worth of work.

Finally a reminder of the FCAs for the lesson:
4 points: 4 random problems will be checked for accuracy


Students reflected today on the four principles of solving equations that we created as a class:
1. Isolate the variable
2. Use opposite operations
3. Respect the mirror
4. Balance the equation

We also marvelled at how many prerequisite skills solving equations demands of us including knowing:

a. order of operations
b. integer operations (adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing positive and negative numbers)
c. exponents
d. symbolic interpretation (what does 8x mean mathematically?)

No comments: