options: Modeling: students learn to choose and use appropriate mathematics and statistics to analyze real-world empirical situations, improve decisions, and report on their conclusions and the reasoning behind them.

Number Systems and Quantity: students learn to understand the complex number system and reason quantitatively.

Number & Operations in Base Ten: students learn to work with the base-ten system and build place value understanding.

Ratios & Proportional Relationships: students learn to recognize, describe, represent, and reason with ratios, rates, proportional relationships, and percent.

Operations & Algebra: students learn to solve problems using algebraic thinking and operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They may learn to identify and explain arithmetic patterns, evaluate or manipulate numerical expressions, and reason with equations and inequalities.

Statistics & Probability: students learn to analyze and produce data distributions, and build understanding of univariate and bivariate data. They learn to interpret data, make statistical inferences, justify conclusions, understand rules of probability, and use probability to make decisions.

Measurement & Data: students learn to work with data and measure attributes such as time, money, length, area, and volume. They may learn to compare measurements to operations and convert between different units of measure.

Counting & Cardinality: students learn to know number names and the count sequence, count to tell the number of objects, and compare numbers.

Geometry: students learn to classify geometric figures by their properties, and understand and compare the relationships between them. Students develop and use formulas to compute lengths, areas, and volumes, and they use transformations to generate new shapes and compare existing ones. Geometry can be studied with and without coordinates.

Functions: students learn to define, use, and evaluate functions to model relationships between quantities.

Number & Operations - Fractions: students learn to understand fractions as numbers and may work with them using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
problem_activity: Activity
Having just seen an example of the meaning of
\(a\)
and
\(b\)
in an exponential expression
\(a \boldcdot b^x\)
, students now focus on interpreting these numbers using graphs. They graph the equations from the previous task, noticing that
\(a\)
is the vertical intercept of the graph while the number
\(b\)
determines how quickly the graph grows (since in these cases
\(b>1\)
). A larger value of
\(b\)
corresponds to a more rapid rate of growth for the bacteria population. The axes for the graphs have been labeled here, but in future activities, students will have to think strategically about how to label the axes to most effectively plot the points.
Making graphing technology available gives students an opportunity to choose appropriate tools strategically (MP5).
Launch
Display the equations from the previous activity for all to see (if they are not already visible).
Conversing: MLR8 Discussion Supports.
Use this routine to help students describe the meaning of variables in exponential expressions. Arrange students in groups of 2. Invite Partner A to share their observations for the first graph and Partner B to share their observations for the second graph. Provide sentence frames such as “I can connect the equation to the graph by….” and “I notice that….” Invite the listener to press for additional details referring to features of the graphs, such as the vertical intercept, specific points, and the steepness of the curve. This will help students justify how features of the graph can be used to identify matching equations.
Design Principle(s): Support sense-making; Cultivate conversation
Student Facing
Refer back to your work in the table of the previous task. Use that information and the given coordinate planes to graph the following:
a. Graph
\((t,n)\)
when
\(t\)
is 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4.
[IMG]
b. Graph
\((t,p)\)
when
\(t\)
is 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. (If you get stuck, you can create a table.)
[IMG]
On the graph of
\(n\)
, where can you see each number that appears in the equation?
On the graph of
\(p\)
, where can you see each number that appears in the equation?
Student Response
Teachers with a valid work email address can
click here to register or sign in
for free access to Student Response.
Anticipated Misconceptions
Students may have trouble graphing the points, particularly finding the appropriate vertical (
\(n\)
or
\(p\)
) values. Ask them to find the coordinates of the grid points on the vertical axis and use that to estimate the vertical position of their points.
When calculating values by hand, many students may mistakenly write an expression like
\(100 \boldcdot 3^2\)
as
\(300^2\)
. Remind them that the expression
\(100 \boldcdot 3^2\)
means
\(100 \boldcdot 3 \boldcdot 3\)
.
Activity Synthesis
Make sure students recognize two key takeaways from this activity:
The vertical intercept of the graph is the initial bacteria population size. It is the size of the population when first measured, or when
\(t\)
, the number of hours since measurement, is 0.
The growth factor of the populations is represented by how quickly the graph increases.


correct_option_index: 4