standard_description: Write, read, and evaluate expressions in which letters stand for numbers.
problem_activity: Activity
The activity is an opportunity to practice evaluating quadratic expressions for a negative value of the variable, and choosing parameters of an equation that will result in its graph looking a certain way.
Launch
Arrange students in groups of 2. Give students two minutes of quiet work time on the first question, and ask them to check their answers with their partner before starting the second question. Call attention to the scale on the axes. Identify students who use the scale to select the parameters for their linear equation.
Student Facing
Evaluate each expression when
\(x\)
is -3.
\(x^2\)
\(\text-x^2\)
\(x^2+20\)
\(\text-x^2+20\)
For each graph, come up with an equation that the graph could represent. Verify your equation using graphing technology.
[IMG]
Student Response
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Activity Synthesis
Invite students to share various equations that each graph could represent. Use different but equally correct equations to help students generalize. For example, either
\(y=x+15\)
or
\(y=x+12\)
makes sense for graph C, because it looks like
\(y=x\)
, and is shifted up by some number between 10 and 20. So we know that the equation this graph represents is in the form
\(y=x+b\)
, where
\(b\)
is positive, even though we can’t tell its exact value from the given information.


aligns: yes