![exponential graph builder exponential graph builder](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tAaDItpC8OI/maxresdefault.jpg)
As the student was parsing the problem he “fulfilled his obligation” to use that association on the number. The student had an association between negative exponents and reciprocals and “half-powers” and square roots. I want to share a theory on this mistake: Overall, this was fun! I’m excited to try it again. I’m not sure…Īlso, I think the previous slides connect more to the issue at hand. On an assessment-do you think this student could be given the equation y=x^2-3 and choose the correct graph from four multiple choice? I’m not sure… Not sure if it would make a difference or not. I also wonder if the missing representation should be another quadratic. I’m trying to consider if the connecting representations should include tables. On the other hand, this activity does provide the student with a more possibilities of visualizing the function, which could yield insight into how he’s thinking about the quadratic function.īridget: I wonder if the graphs should be discrete points instead of continuous. This activity provides less structure than the previous since, to determine what the function’s graph looks like he would need to do it himself. I’m also wondering about the choice to have two linear functions vs. Max: I prefer my version of the previous activity - this activity doesn’t invite students to consider why the parabola is symmetric - it’s easy enough to connect the linear and nonlinear representations and not confront the whys of the symmetry of the nonlinear representation. Maybe including y = x^3 + 4 as a third example (with both graph and equation provided) would support that sense-making?īrian: I like the idea of having one more equation than graph. To wrap things up, I shared a mockup of Bridget’s alternative activity and asked people what they thought about it. On the other hand, connecting representations to include y= x^2 + 4 vs y = x + 4 On twitter, Bridget had a second idea for an activity that would help students like this one develop their thoughts. Here were three responses that represent some of the variations people had:
![exponential graph builder exponential graph builder](https://s3.amazonaws.com/ck12bg.ck12.org/curriculum/108058/thumb_540_50.jpg)
In the Desmos activity, I asked if people could think of a way to improve my rough draft. Inspired by Bridget, I put this together: I would like them to realize it's non-linear first I would think contemplate then calculate for this. What activity could we design that would help students like this one develop their thinking? I agree: it seems as if this student is trying to fit a U-shaped function into a line-shaped paradigm. Knowing that this sort of equation produces a U will make it more likely that they will test negative x-values, or at least more reliably guess the rest of the shape. While there were a lot of great observations, the one that stood out to me was that this student could probably learn to recognize that this sort of equation will produce a U shape. I wonder how come the student did not use any negative values in her table.” Jonathan: “I notice that there is a disconnect in the student’s knowledge of linear vs. Lane: “Does he have an eraser? Does he get confused calculating with zero? Does he know the shape of a parabola? Does he know that a function cannot possible have one point on top of another? Does he sometimes get confused with x^2 and 2x? Could he have analyzed his own mistakes with a calculator? By not checking with a calculator will some of his errors snowball and cause further confusion? Is the student feeling frustrated? I think it is good this student understands the choice of input does not have to be in a particular order.” Kevin: “These don’t seem to be in any particular order.” They do not recognize that this is a quadratic function and try to get a straight line.” Guest: “This is a common error for my students as well. The written answers people offered were also really interesting. I’m not sure what to make of all that overlaid, but I’m definitely interested. Here is the overlay showing everything that everyone circled. I asked people to circle something they noticed in this student’s work. I made a little Desmos activity to see if it’s possible to use their activity builder to share and comment on student work. What do you notice about this student’s thinking? What do you wonder about it?