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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Number & Operations - Fractions: students learn to understand fractions as numbers and may work with them using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
problem_activity: Activity
Students continue to compare quadratic and exponential functions in this activity. This time, they decide how to compare the functions.
Monitor for different strategies students may use to compare the functions. Identify students who:
Create one or more tables of values and compare the values of
\(p(x)\)
and
\(q(x)\)
at increasingly large values of
\(x\)
.
Graph the functions defined by
\(p(x) = 6x^2\)
and
\(q(x) = 3^x\)
and compare the graphs.
Create one or more tables of values, calculate the growth factors at equal intervals of input, and then compare the growth factors.
If students choose graphing or spreadsheet tools strategically to perform comparisons, they practice MP5.
Launch
Ask students to observe the equations representing the two functions and determine which function is exponential and which is quadratic. Invite students to share how they know. Make sure students recognize that
\(p\)
is quadratic and
\(q\)
is exponential before they begin the activity.
Provide access to graphing technology and spreadsheet tools. This may be a good opportunity for students to experiment with the graphing window. If the horizontal dimension is very small (for example,
\(0<x<5\)
) or the vertical dimension is very large (for example,
\(0<y<3,\!000\)
), the two graphs will be hard to distinguish. As needed, remind students to think about adjusting the graphing window to make the graphs more informative.
Action and Expression: Provide Access for Physical Action.
Provide access to tools and assistive technologies such as a graphing calculator or graphing software. Some students may benefit from a checklist or list of steps to be able to adjust the graphing window to experiment with the horizontal and vertical dimensions.
Supports accessibility for: Organization; Conceptual processing; Attention
Student Facing
Here are two functions:
\(p(x) = 6x^2\)
and
\(q(x) = 3^x\)
.
Investigate the output of
\(p\)
and
\(q\)
for different values of
\(x\)
. For large enough values of
\(x\)
, one function will have a greater value than the other. Which function will have a greater value as
\(x\)
increases?
Support your answer with tables, graphs, or other representations.
Student Response
Teachers with a valid work email address can
click here to register or sign in
for free access to Student Response.
Student Facing
Are you ready for more?
Jada says that some exponential functions grow more slowly than the quadratic function
\(f(x)=x^2\)
as
\(x\)
increases. Do you agree with Jada? Explain your reasoning.
Let
\(f(x) = x^2\)
. Could you have an exponential function
\(g(x)=b^x\)
so that
\(g(x) < f(x)\)
for all values of
\(x\)
?
Student Response
Teachers with a valid work email address can
click here to register or sign in
for free access to Extension Student Response.
Activity Synthesis
Select students to present their strategies in the sequence listed in the Activity Narrative. If no students chose to graph the functions, consider displaying the graphs for all to see.  By presenting strategies that involved calculation of growth factors last, students will deepen their understanding of why exponential values will eventually overtake the quadratic values.
Again, one way to make sense of why exponential functions eventually grow faster than quadratic functions is by thinking of the growth factors. The output of an exponential function always increases by the same factor when the input increases by 1 (for example, 3 for the exponential function
\(q\)
studied here). The output of a quadratic function, on the other hand, increases by smaller and smaller amounts when the input increases by 1. So even though a quadratic function may take larger values than an exponential function for many inputs, the values of the exponential function will eventually overtake the quadratic.
Conversing: MLR2 Collect and Display.
As students share their analysis with the class, listen for and collect the language students use to identify and describe how the output of the exponential function eventually outgrows that of the quadratic function. Write the students’ words and phrases on a visual display and update it throughout the remainder of the lesson. Remind students to borrow language from the display as needed. This will help students read and use mathematical language during their partner and whole-group discussions.
Design Principle(s): Maximize meta-awareness


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