Fun Activity for High School Students Using Slope and Y-Intercept Concepts

Fun activity for high school students using slope and y-intercept concepts.

1.  “The teacher will select 2 students to place a 15-20 ft strip of masking tape (or laminated adding machine tape) on the floor. Then the teacher will select 2 students to place another 15-20 ft strip of tape on the floor perpendicular to the first strip. Use the tiles on the floor as graph paper.”

2.  “ Next the teacher will ask students, one at a time, to take the magic marker and write on the tape the following:

1.  x-axis

2.  y-axis

3.  0 at the origin

4.  scale the positive x-axis

5.  scale the negative x-axis

6.  scale the positive y-axis

7.  scale the negative y-axis ”

3.  “The teacher will choose a group of 5 students to stand at different points on the x-axis. Be sure one student stands on the origin. The teacher instructs the students to add 3 to the x-coordinate and move vertically to the result. For example, if Adam is standing on (-4, 0), he will move to (-4, -1) and if Beth is standing on (2, 0), she will move to (2, 5). The students will be points on a line. The teacher will ask the class “What is the equation of this line?” The answer is y = x + 3. The students return to their original starting point on the x-axis and the teacher chooses different values to add to x.”

4.  “Next the teacher chooses another group of 5 students to stand on the x-axis and instructs them to subtract 3 from the x-coordinate. For example, Adam moves from (-4, 0) to (-4, -7) and Beth moves from (2, 0) to (2, -1). The teacher asks “What is the equation of this line?” (Answer: y = x - 3) Repeat several times, subtracting different values from x.”

5.  “Then the teacher chooses another group of 5 students to stand on the x-axis and instructs them to multiply the x-coordinate by 2. “What is the equation of this line?” (Answer: y = 2x) Repeat using -2; (1/2); etc.”

6.  “Lastly, the teacher will choose another group of 5 students to stand on the x-axis and instructs them to multiply the x-coordinate by 2 and subtract 1. “What is the equation of this line?” (Answer: y = 2x -1) Repeat several times using different combinations of positive/negative multipliers with adding/subtracting different values. ”

Source: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/3084?ref=search from learnncc web page.