Thinking

Through a Lesson Protocol

Ellen Peper
Oct 27, 2014
Exploring Exponential, Linear, Quadratic Functions

Mathematical Goals:
Students will be able to demonstrate through graphical, algebraic, and
tabular representations that exponential functions grow by equal factors
over equal intervals.
Students will discover that a quantity increasing exponentially eventually
exceeds a quantity increasing linearly or quadratically.
Students will be able to demonstrate through graphical, algebraic, and
tabular representations that linear functions grow by equal differences.

To achieve an understanding of these goals, students will be able to consider
different functions and determine the values at which the functions are different
and the same. Students will understand how each type of function grows over
time and students will also discover that an exponential function will eventually
exceed that of any linear or quadratic function given the appropriate amount of
time. Students will generate the equations to option A and B determining the
total number of money on a given day with the following prior knowledge:
Slope of a line
Point-Slope form
Slope Intercept form
Geometric sequences
Sum of terms of a geometric sequence formula
Ratios

Solving the Task
See attached task worksheets and the solutions to them.
Possible misconceptions/incorrect pathways
o Students may have difficulty manipulating the exponential expression
containing a negative sign. This expression will be used in one method of
approach to find the exponential equation from the sum of terms of a
geometric sequence formula.
o Students may have difficulty maintaining proper use of parenthesis
especially while using the sum of terms of a geometric sequence formula.
o Simplifying the sum of terms of a geometric sequence formula using the
data provided may cause difficulty in some students in order to result in
the correct exponential function equation.
o Interpreting the graphical representations will cause difficulty in some
students. Creating the graph from the data will help, however, many
students see a graph as a picture rather than as the representations of a
functional relationship between two variables

o Some students may not know the number of columns and rows to the
tables they construct as well as labeling. (I will be providing a blank table of the
proper dimentions in the worksheet)
o Some students will see a pattern in the total number of pennies column of
their graphs. This pattern is a pattern of 2x +1 however this pattern is not
useful in deriving the necessary formula. Many students will be distracted
by this pattern. I will address this pattern by means of engaging questions
and scaffolding.

Building on Prior Knowledge
Previous lessons as well as courses will have introduced...
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The slope of a line and what it represents ( ! / !"# ).
Knowledge and use of standard point slope as well as slope-intercept form.
Graphing equations in both standard and slope-intercept form.
Patterns of algebraic and geometric sequences.
Finding terms in algebraic and geometric sequences as well as the sum of
terms of a geometric sequence.
Finding common ratio of a geometric sequence.
Exponential, quadratic and polynomial function formulas.
Graphing data points and equations of exponential, quadratic and polynomial
functions.
Graphing calculator experience of plotting data and equations as well as
adjusting viewing window measurements to accommodate a given graph.

Questions to assess prior knowledge before beginning the task:
How are linear, exponential, quadratic, and polynomial functions different?
Draw sketches of each of these graphs. What do the differences mean?

Students will have space to draw the graphs of the functions and have the chance to explain
what they mean and how they act. (ex. Behavior of lines, roots, etc.)

Materials Required
Activity worksheet
Calculator (graphing preferred)
centimeter grid paper
Pencils/pens/scratch paper
Piggy bank and manipulatives provided
Grouping
Students will be placed into mixed ability groups in order for more capable
peer scaffolding to take place (some students may also have more experience
pertaining to this concept and will be able to help others understand better).
Groups will consist of 2-3 students in each group.

At the end of the task, time will be spent as a class discussing what students
have determined as the better option and why. This will take the form of a
poster presentation from each group.
Each group will have the opportunity to not only discuss with the class what
they came up with, but also demonstrate their thinking process and why it
works.
As a class, I would also like to go over what students felt was the most
challenging part of the problem activity and why.

Time Required
This lesson will take place in approximately two 50-minute lessons or 1 block
period.

Instructional Lesson Plan

I.
Essential Questions or Big Mathematical Ideas
How can graphs of linear or exponential equations be used to
solve real-world problems?

II.
Enduring Understandings
Linear functions have a constant difference, whereas exponential
functions have a constant ratio.
Real world situations can be represented symbolically and
graphically.
A quantity increasing exponentially eventually exceeds a quantity
increasing linearly

III.
Launch
Class will start as soon as students walk through the door. Nametag tents
will be set up in the middle of each table indicating which group each
student will be in. Each group will have a review question to answer.
When they have completed the review, they will turn in the question to
the teachers desk in order to receive their group piggy bank containing
thirty-one pennies, five $1,000 dollar monopoly bills and a visual
representation of the proper arrangement. (Teacher must be sure to
instruct students not to open the piggy bank. Students should place the
piggy bank on the table and wait for instruction).

As a class we will discuss the review question to make sure everyone has
an understanding of the differences between linear, quadratic,
exponential and polynomial functions.

The teacher will then ask the students to take the items out of the piggy
bank placing bills in a vertical line and pennies in 5 ascending groups
from least to greatest number of pennies to the right of the bills (a visual
representation of the proper arrangement will be included in the piggy
bank as well for students who have a hard time visualizing what the
descriptive directions are saying). First group of pennies contains only 1
penny, second group of pennies contains 2 pennies, third group of
pennies contains 4 pennies, fourth group of pennies contains 8 pennies
and the fifth group of pennies contains 16 pennies.

The teacher then presents the scenario to the students.
Your wealthy uncle is giving you a graduation gift. He gives you a
choice. Option A: Either receive $1,000 every day for one month OR
option B: he will gradually give you more and more money
throughout the course of a month. If you choose option B, he will
give you 1 penny on the first day, 2 pennies on the second day, 4
pennies on the third day, 8 pennies on the fourth day, 16 pennies on
the 5th day and so on for a month. Assuming this is a 30 day month,
which would be the better option? Which is the better deal?

Students will be given about 15 seconds to ponder their opinion before
sharing with the class in the show of hands form. Who would choose
option A and who would choose option B? Why did you choose that
option?

All students will then be handed out the worksheet to be completed in
their small groups.


IV.

Plan
Day 1
(10-15 min) Warm up review
The teacher will make sure students are prepared for the task by
reviewing the previous knowledge necessary to make connections
and understandings throughout this lesson. If some students do
not remember a certain equation or definition they will be given
the opportunity to quickly refresh their memory.
(10 min) Introduction to task
The teacher will provide the students with the scenario, prompt
student thought and engagement by connecting the real-world
concept with their individual perceptions and opinions, and go
over student expectations. Teacher will also hand out the activity
worksheet.
o Students will work in small groups to determine whether
option A or option B is the better deal.

o Students will be expected to use their knowledge of

constructing tables and graphs to represent the data or
recognize patterns and create an exponential equation from
those patters.
o Students will eventually be expected to present their thought
process and reasoning to the class in discussion.

(25 min) Small groups work on task
Each small group will work together on the task as the teacher
circulates the room providing supporting questions and the
proper scaffolding to progress student thinking.

Day 2
(25 min) Small groups work on task
Each small group will work together on the task as the teacher
circulates the room providing supporting questions and the
proper scaffolding to progress student thinking. Most students will
be working on putting together a poster board at this time.

(25 min) Discussion of results
Small groups will present their findings as well as demonstrate
and explain their thought process and reasonings in order to
achieve a deeper understanding throughout the class.
The teacher will then redirect students thinking towards
conclusions to be made from the lesson, making sure to address
the key components and ideas.
Teacher will finish the lesson by asking students where else a real-
world representation of an exponential model may be seen
(growth or decay). Provide examples. (Population growth, bacteria
growth and decay, cancer cells / virus growth, decay of radioactive
substances)

Questions: Assess, Advance
Questions to Assess when beginning the task:
Why do you think option A would make you the most money after 30
days?
Why do you think option B would make you the most money after 30
days?



Questions to Advance when beginning the task:
Do you think a penny being doubled and then deposited daily will
have as big of an impact on the total amount received as a payment of
$1,000 every day?

Is time a factor?
o Think about these last two questions throughout your
worksheet. We will discuss it as a class along with our findings.

Questions to Assess With All Approaches:
What information are we given in option A?
What information are we given in option B?
What are we trying to determine as our end result?
Look at the pennies you have at your desk. How many groups of
pennies are there?
o What does the groups of pennies represent?
If you deposit all the pennies on day 1 how many pennies did you
deposit?
o Now what about day 2?
At the end of day 2, how many pennies do you now have in your piggy
bank?
How many pennies will you deposit on day 3?
At the end of day 3, how many pennies do you now have in your piggy
bank?
Converting from pennies to dollars.
o What relationship do we know of between pennies and
dollars?
o How many pennies are in a dollar? How can we use this to
convert pennies to dollars?
o If there are 100 pennies in a dollar. That means for every 100
pennies we have 1 dollar.
o What ratio is that?
o Without thinking about the units, how do you go from 100 to
1?
How do you go from 50 to 10? 8 to 4? 20 to 2? 100 to 1?

Questions to Advance With All Approaches:
How do we know how much we have received total on a given day?
o Adding up the payments received up until that day
o Students may already begin to see the pattern of multiplying
each day by payment received

Questions to Assess Specifically With Tabular Approach:
What can we call the end result to represent a column in our table?
How many pennies will you deposit on day 2?
At the end of day 2, how many pennies do you now have in your piggy
bank?
How many pennies will you deposit on day 3?
At the end of day 3, how many pennies do you now have in your piggy
bank?

o How can we represent this in our table?

Questions to Advance Specifically With Tabular Approach:
How can you calculate the data entries for the end result column?
What can we determine about the behavior of the data from the data
in our table?

Questions to Assess Specifically With Graphical Approach:
What do we need from the data in order to make a graph?
What is our dependent variable and our independent variable?
Which variable coincides with which axis?

Questions to Advance Specifically With Graphical Approach:
How does the graph behave over time?
At what rate does it grow?
Questions to Advance from Tabular to Algebraic Approach:
Is there a pattern between the first two columns? Why not?
Is there an addition pattern between column 2 and 3? Multiplication?
Why not?
Do the numbers in column 2 (the number of pennies on a given day)
represent a pattern that you are familiar with?
o Most students will be able to see the doubling pattern. Focus
their attention on other forms of writing the doubling pattern.
2* what is 2? 2* what is 4? 2* what is 8?
o What about the factor tree of 2, 4, 8, and 16. When the students
factor 2, 4, 8, 16 into its smallest prime factors they see 4= 2*2
= 2^2 8= 2*2*2 = 2^3 16= 2*2*2*2 = 2^4
What about column 3 (total number of pennies)?
o Some students may see 2(number of pennies on a given day) -1
which is good. However they still need to be able to represent
the number of pennies column in the power of 2 form.
Good! Now think about what value we need to plug into
an equation in order to find out how many pennies we
have in the piggy bank at a specific point in the month.
o 7 = (2^3) 1 3 is the x variable J

Questions to Assess Specifically With Algebraic (equation) Approach:
What is the equation calculating?
What approaches have you looked at so far?
If we know there are x amount of days and we need to find the total
number of pennies in the piggy bank on a given day, what pattern can
we use that represents this?
Think back to ratios and geometric sequences.

o Was there an equation that we used to find the sum of a

geometric sequence? (Students can look back/ research this
sum formula if necessary)

Questions to Assess during #2 (timeframe for exponential to exceed linear):
Think back to what you know about option A.
o On day 15 how much money will you have with option A vs.
option B?
o On day 20? Are we getting closer? Try some more numbers.
Remember we want the exact day where the exponential
function (option B) is finally larger than the linear function
(option A). There will be no such day before the day you find
that the exponential function result is higher than the linear
function result.

Ensuring Student Engagement:
If a student is easily frustrated and continuously asks for guidance:
o Each group will be asked questions about their process as the task is
in progress. Each time the group is visited a random group member
will be asked to explain their understandings. If that individual cannot
explain what is happening or why the group members will be held
responsible for making sure that student is learning the necessary
processes. I may ask that same student the second time around in
order to ensure understanding amongst all students. If a group of
students is continuously asking for guidance I will provide them with
questions listed above to stimulate thought and also encourage ability
and a high expectation. Think about it, I know you can do it.
o Mixed ability grouping will give students the opportunity to branch off
of one anothers ideas with less demand on teacher support.
o I do think students will struggle with constructing the tables
especially in option B. This is why I have the manipulative to help
them grasp the information provided as well as what the tables end
result will be. Encouraging them to deposit the pennies on day 1 then
day two and determining the total amount in the bank after each
consecutive day will help them in creating the table components as
well as data calculations.
If a student finishes the task almost immediately
o I will ask them some of the advancing questions to progress them to a
deeper level of thinking.
o I will provide an extension of real-world scenario research to be used
as demonstration in the following days. Students will print out data

charts of these real-world scenarios to present to their classmates

along with their group presentation of the task.
o Another option is to have students who finish quickly go back through
and try to provide proofs for question 11 and possibly 9.
If a student is focusing on non-mathematical aspects of the task
o I will ask the student some of the assessing questions from above.
What approaches have you looked at so far? What similarities or
differences are there between generating the linear equation and
generating the exponential equation?
o I will ask the student to show what they have completed so far and to
explain their reasoning
o If the student is simply playing with their graphing calculator I will
ask them create a single graph containing both equations and then
have him/her project the graph so everyone can see the coinciding
relationship and point of intersection.

Selecting and Sequencing Student Responses:

During large group discussion I will start by asking students what they found to be
the best deal, option A or option B. Depending on what I see included on a particular
groups poster board I will have them talk about how they came upon their
understandings. I will choose a groups work from each approach, graphically,
algebraic and tabular. Some groups will use more than one approach; others only
one may be necessary. Incorrect student discoveries or responses will most
definitely need to be addressed and then corrected so that all students are able to
learn from the mistake or misunderstanding. Once we have gone through the
discussion, students will be given an opportunity to adjust their answers before they
turn it in in order to accommodate for more or deeper understandings.

V.
Close
Describe how students will take away the big ideas.
During the discussion
Students using terminology such as equal factors or expanding rate when
describing the behavior of exponential functions would be a good indication
of mathematical goal understanding.
If students come to the conclusion of option B being the better deal in a 30-
day time period and can appropriately justify why, they will have acquired
the necessary understanding of the mathematical goal.
Also, students who can properly indicate the day in which the exponential
function exceeds the linear function will be a clear indication of
understanding.
Students using terminology such as equal differences, same rate, or
constant rate when describing the behavior of linear functions would be a
good indication of mathematical goal understanding.

During homework time:

Some students may be changing their answers. This would be an indication
that the discussion helped reshape their thinking or point it in a new
direction.

Exit Slip or Assessment
Students will be able to make changes to their worksheet after the class discussion
as homework. Once all necessary changes are made, students will turn in their
worksheets by the beginning of class the following day in order to be assessed on
their understanding of exponential and linear functions as well as their application
to real-world scenarios. Students presentation posters will also be graded and can
be compared to their worksheet solutions to assess which concepts may have been
learned through group discussion that may not have been evident through their
group work.

Citations
This is a mini intro that I used to come up with the resulting lesson plan used here. I
added a lot of content and dimension to this lesson than originally included.
http://www.sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/stembite-exponential-growth-
50027951/