Intent

This activity gives students a framework for reflecting on their work so far in the unit and will help you assess their understanding of the connections among the various ways to represent a relationship between two variables.

Mathematics

Students examine the connections among graphical, tabular, and symbolic representations of situations.

Progression

Working on their own, students reflect on the relationships among the four representations between two variables. The rest of the unit draws upon these representations for creating and manipulating linear equations.

Approximate Time

5 minutes for introduction

25 minutes for activity (at home or in class)

15 minutes for discussion

Classroom Organization

Individuals, followed by whole-class discussion

Materials

Students’ work from previous activities

Doing the Activity

Take a moment to remind students that they have been studying relationships between two variables by considering graphs, tables, rules, and their associated situations. This activity is their chance to show what they know about these representations and how they relate to one another. Emphasize the expectations stated in the final paragraph of the activity.

Discussing and Debriefing the Activity

To initiate discussion, have volunteers read portions of their work aloud. Here are examples of the type of descriptive statements to look for.

Although you should take care to clear up misunderstandings, do not expect students to provide definitive statements about these relationships, which will be revisited many times in all four years of the IMP curriculum.

You may want to collect the responses to assess how well students understand the connections among situations, graphs, In-Out tables, and algebraic rules.