Exponential Function Designs.docx - Section 2: Investigation and New Learning

Exponential Function Designs
Lesson 14 of 26
Objective: Students will be able to change the parameters in the function y=a*b^(x+c)+d to create designs using exponential functions.
Big Idea: Using the challenge of creating visually appealing designs, students will explore the affect of each parameter on the graph of the function.
Print Lesson
To set up this section of the lesson, I tell students that I designed each page of the match-ups with a key idea in mind. I tell them, “While working on the match-ups, see if you can figure out what I think each page is supposed to be about.” In the end, I will ask them to write a 1-sentence summary of the big idea of each page of the packet, so as they work you can circulate and ask them to tell you what they think each page is about.
Some students simply use data points from each graph and plug them into each function until they get a match. This is totally fine, except that the purpose of this task is not to plug and chug but to learn about the behavior of the functions. If I notice students using the plug-and-chug method, I tell them, “This is great but as you work, see if you can think of ways to do this without plugging and chugging.” Or I tell them, “That’s a great method. See if you can make a guess first and then check your answers by plugging in a point.”
Other students rush to shortcuts and don’t actually check their work using data points. They might be using theories that are not correct to make their match-ups, so it is important to encourage them to actually check points.
This is a great example of MPS2 in practice, because some students work only quantitatively and make no generalizations, so they need to be encouraged to make generalizations, while other students work only abstractly and don’t check any data points with numbers so they need to be encouraged to use some numbers. The most effective strategy for a student to use during this lesson is to make abstract theories and to test them quantitatively, or, alternatively, to find match-ups quantitatively and then develop more abstract theories.
One optional scaffold that you can use with the whole class is the page called Matching Exponential Function Graphs. This is just one page of match-ups that you can use to model the process of working both abstractly and quantitatively. This is the kind of resource I use when I notice most of my students struggling with something: you can project this and then show them your thought process in making the match-ups using both data points and some generalizations.
Resources (4)
- UNIT 1: Linear and Nonlinear Functions
- UNIT 2: Piecewise Functions
- UNIT 3: Absolute Value Functions and More Piecewise Functions
- UNIT 4: Introduction to Quadratic Functions through Applications
- UNIT 5: More Abstract Work with Quadratic Functions
- UNIT 6: Rational Functions
- UNIT 7: Polynomial Functions
- UNIT 8: Exponential Functions
- UNIT 9: Ferris Wheels
- UNIT 10: Circles
- UNIT 11: Radical Functions
- UNIT 12: Cubic Functions
- LESSON 1: Bunnies and Exponential Growth
- LESSON 2: More Bunnies and Exponential Growth
- LESSON 3: Candy Bars and Exponential Decay
- LESSON 4: Bunnies and Exponential Equations
- LESSON 5: Graphing Bunnies
- LESSON 6: Exponential Data Tables
- LESSON 7: Fitting Exponential Functions Given Two Points
- LESSON 8: Matching Exponential Graphs to Equations
- LESSON 9: Exponential Functions Review
- LESSON 10: Exponential Functions Portfolio and Summative Assessment
- LESSON 11: Exponential Functions and Approach Statements
- LESSON 12: Graphing Exponential Functions
- LESSON 13: Matching Graphs of Exponential Functions to their Equations
- LESSON 14: Exponential Function Designs
- LESSON 15: Graph Exponential Functions Review
- LESSON 16: Graph Exponential Functions Summative Assessment and Portfolio
- LESSON 17: Bouncy Ball Investigation
- LESSON 18: Percent Change: Growth and Decay
- LESSON 19: More Percent Changes and Exponential Functions
- LESSON 20: Writing Exponential Functions to Solve Problems
- LESSON 21: Different Time Intervals and Exponential Functions
- LESSON 22: Compound Interest
- LESSON 23: Compound Interest Formula
- LESSON 24: Continuously Compounded Interest
- LESSON 25: Applications of Exponential Functions Review
- LESSON 26: Applications of Exponential Functions Summative Assessment