Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Quadratic Functions Performance Assessment

My algebra 2 students just turned in a performance assessment over graphing quadratic functions and it turned out really nicely, so I thought I would share it.

First, I asked students to graph several functions I'd put together.  When graphed they form a man with wings.  I then asked them to make their own picture out of functions.  They then traded papers and tried to graph each other's pictures.  Finally, they colored in their pictures and we had an art show.

This project helped them reinforce function transformation rules, especially vertical dilation and some students even created their own functions that we hadn't studied to help them create their picture.  (One student taught himself how to flip an absolute value graph on its side and shift it, then another student had to figure out what he'd done to graph it.)   The best part of the project was when a student thanked me for having fun homework. And of course today was a lot of fun when we got to hang up their pictures, admire them, vote on the best one and eat candy.  The whole project took two and a half periods and I think a lot of learning got done.

Here's my original hand out:

*Oops, there's a typo.  Function 11 should be p(x)=x^2+(y-5)^2.  The squared should be on the outside of the parentheses.  I throw these sheets together too quickly...
  Quadratic Functions Performance Assessment Here are pictures of the students admiring each other's work and voting on the best piece of art:




Here are the pictures they created:


I do have more than 7 students, but two were absent today (I know, 9 students is still an awesome student teacher ratio.)
Here's the third place winner


Here's second place:


And here's first place

1 comment:

  1. I am just wondering if you allowed your students to use Desmos at all, or if all of it was done by hand.

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