MathMUDtician

This is a fun activity for Algebra 1 students to practice graphing lines in standard form using intercepts. When they are finished, the students will have a "stained glass" image that can then be colored and used as classroom decorations.

It seems that the hardest thing for the students, when it comes to factoring by special cases, is recognizing when a polynomial is a special case. This puzzle only asks the students to identify which polynomials are special cases, and have a little chuckle at the end. Punchline: The Romans didn't find Algebra very challenging because x was always ten.

Factoring special cases can get boring, or repetitious pretty quick for the students. That is why I created this puzzle. They do not mind going through the motions because they know there is a rewarding chuckle waiting for them at the end. Punchline: It is a shame that they will never meet

This is a matching exercise to help students practice solving nonlinear systems. The students should work in groups to match the graphs to the appropriate equations. Then, once they see what the solutions are from the graphs, they should find the solutions algebraically. This helps the students by giving them a graphical representation of what is happening when solving this kind of system.

This exercise is designed to walk students through the discovery of the function transformation rules. It is part of both the Common Core Algebra 1, and Algebra 2 courses. The only prior knowledge that is required is to be able to evaluate absolute values. A lesson formalizing the function transformation rules should follow this exercise.

This exercise is designed to teach the students to recognize equivalent forms of quadratics, and to find their key features along the way. It is set up in a way that requires the students to use features as clues as to how to write the equivalent forms. It also requires the students to graph the equations that they find.