I love to see what materials and strategies other teachers use to teach math. So before each unit I scour the Internet looking for great ideas. Often, I find ideas that I can massage into useful activities for my students.
In preparing to teach systems of equations I did one of those Internet searches. Here are some of my favorite finds ...
Unit 6 - wow! Dan, blogger at The Exponential Curve, has an amazing set of math materials in his "Box" widget! Unit 6 is a full unit on systems! Great resource!
I Can Do This! System of Equations on the Ohio Department of Education website has several activities - I especially like the Lost at Sea problem!
Do These Systems Meet Your Expectations is published through the NSA site. It has a carnival theme. In addition it has a graphing lines foldable - a great addition.
Whose Line is it Anyway is also published through the NSA site. It has a savings and summer job theme. Several good problems are included.
Farmer's Market on the School Improvement in Maryland website includes a thorough problem solving task with additional problems in context!
This Flip Book from Math Tales from the Spring is a good organizer for our unit on systems!
2 sites that are perfect for posting on your class website to help students who want additional resources as they study systems include:
- Regents Exam Prep Center (notice that they have a nice summary activity for triads to complete!)
- BBC Bitesize
There are more I'm sure! If you have had good success in teaching systems of equations, what worked for you?? Please share!
Related articles
- Year 9 Equations homework (nsmaths.wordpress.com)
- Bringing maths to life with cross-curricular appeal (guardian.co.uk)
- Using Excel for Problem Solving (http://fawnnguyen.com/)
Thanks for posting these resources! I especially like pages 8-11 of the Ohio resource because when we do these with the kids (I did a bunch of these at beginning of year with my kids), we don't need to bring up any vocabulary like "systems," or "intersections," or mention anything but equations.
ReplyDeleteMy algebra class is wrapping up systems unit and we're in the middle of using Excel to figure out these problems. It's my favorite part of the unit. I wrote about it here: http://fawnnguyen.com/2012/10/06/20121006.aspx
Thanks again!
I meant "about" equations, not "but" equations.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you commented. I had read your post and wanted to find it ... but alas, I forgot who wrote it. I love the use of Excel. Sometime in January our district is giving all of our 9th graders laptops. I'll be able to incorporate more technology ideas in our lessons. Even if we have finished systems by that time, I'd like to come back to your lesson for demonstration and practice. Thanks again for commenting!
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