Math Fundamentals
Through thoughtful exploration, students are mastering the evaluation of expressions involving exponents, while also gaining insight into practical applications. From understanding how to square the measurements of squares to find area, to grasping the concept of taking an edge length to the third power for volume calculations, students are gaining a solid foundation in fundamental mathematical concepts.
Integrated Math
Integrated Math students are exploring volume concepts with different solids. They conceptualized the volume of a prism as cross-sections of the base filling the figure up to the top, thus also solidifying their understanding of how to find the base of any prism. Cylinders were next interspersed with a conversation about the number system, and how pi is a non-repeating, non-terminating number in the real number system. Although we watched a song that listed the first one-hundred digits of pi, we also discussed the fact that writing the symbol for pi is a more accurate way of listing cylindrical volume. From there we looked at the relationship between a cylinder and cone, thus deriving a formula for cone volume. The volume of spheres will be coming up in the next week as well as assessment over all the volume learning thus far.
Foundations for Algebra
This week marked the culmination of our unit on linear relationships, as students engaged in a problem-based assessment to showcase their comprehension. Through a series of succinct scenarios, students effectively demonstrated their grasp of linear equations and graphs within the context of real-life scenarios. This hands-on approach not only solidified their understanding but also provided invaluable insight into the practical applications of these foundational concepts.
Algebra I
Algebra 1 students continued working with exponential equations within the context of percent growth and decay. They combined this and their previous learning in an assessment early this week. Recently, students examined visual patterns with dots and squares in order to discover our final major type of function: quadratics. Linear functions increase or decrease by the same amount, and exponential functions grow or decay by the same factor. The way quadratic functions increase and decrease will be explored next, as will common applications when a quadratic function is the appropriate model to use.
