Hands On Activity
Hands on activities makes learning fun for all types of students. Students who are having fun become more involved in the learning process. Those who struggle with math can work in collaborative groups to solve hands on questions that relate to mathematical concepts seen in everyday life. This increases student’s motivation to learn, student communication skills, and allows students to incorporate different learning styles. Relating math to real-world situations in a non-traditional way will encourage students to engage in learning challenging concepts. Below is an example of a hands on activity that uses quadratic regression and Geometer's Sketchpad to find the equation of a curve.
Quadratic Regression
Goal
- Generate a quadratic function given data that represents a parabola.
Objectives
- Given a picture of a curve, students will plot points of the curve and fill in a table.
- Given data points, students will input data into a graphing calculator and use the graphing calculator to perform a quadratic regression.
Materials
- Pictures from http://tylerlaufersweiler.weebly.com/curves.html
- Geometer’s Sketchpad
- Graphing Calculator
- Quadratic regression applet http://science.kennesaw.edu/~plaval/applets/QRegression.html
Procedure (click here for procedure with pictures)
- Open geometer’s Sketchpad.
- Pick a picture from http://tylerlaufersweiler.weebly.com/curves.html.
- Copy and Paste the picture into Geometer’s Sketchpad.
- Predict what the function might look like.
- Using the graph menu in Geometer’s Sketchpad, insert a coordinate plane.
- Move the origin to the appropriate spot of the curve. For example, move the origin to where the water is coming out of the spout, where the rainbow is coming out of the ground, etc. Adjust your scale so that your picture has more than 20 units.
- Using the graph menu, plot between 10 and 20 points on the curve. Record these points in the table below.
- What type of regression would you use for these data points?
- Input data into the graphing calculator or quadratic regression applet.
- Using quadratic regression, record the values for a, b, and c.
- Go back to Geometer’s Sketchpad. Under the graph menu choose, plot new function. Plot your quadratic function. The quadratic plotted should follow along the path of the curve in the picture.
- Type your names on the graph and print it out.
Works Cited
InterMath. (2012, April 26). Retrieved from http://intermath.coe.uga.edu/
Downloads
Download Quadratic Regression Doc (quadratic regression.docx)
Download Quadratic Regression PowerPoint (quadratic regression.pptx)
Download Student worksheet (student worksheet.docx)