This lesson is designed for the overhead projector, but it is highly encouraged that you also reproduce these pages for your students to take notes along with you as you lead them through this lesson. A teacher's guide is included for convenient reference.

The lesson begins by introducing two parents that have just created a very perplexing situation for their young teenager, who requests a bigger room as compensation for the stress he is about to endure. In an effort to convince his parents that his request is both reasonable and affordable, he sets up a quadratic equation and solves it by factoring.

Ideally, students should already have had some practice factoring trinomials before beginning this lesson. Also assumed is an understanding of the FOIL method, but the section referring to it can easily act as a quick "mini-lesson" for those who are seeing it for the first time. Discussion of the FOIL method is brief, and this lesson by no means depends on its mastery.

Four problems are provided for independent practice; you may very well add more from another source as you see fit. I hope this provides an interesting context for your students as they learn an important strategy for solving equations. Hopefully you have some fun with it as well.