Polynomial Picture Project

Projects allow the students to show off their creativity and math skills! This one requires students to use Desmos to help create a polynomial function that fits a picture of their choice. As you can see with some of the projects below - the ideas vary immensely. Some of the students are very clever and others just use the McDonald's sign. However, each year, the students amaze us at what they find.

Instead of using their calculators - here's how Desmos will find the regression line. In my video, I just did a simple quadratic, but our students have to create a regression equation that requires at least 3 relative extrema.

Typically, we show the students how to use the Desmos regression option before sharing the project. Some students have trouble fitting the graphs because they choose too many points, and others are upset that it doesn't fit perfectly! We reassure our students that this is the best fit - not a perfect fit.

Once students have the regression equation, they must find zeros, extrema, the y-intercept, domain & range, increasing & decreasing, and end behavior. All of this information should be presented in a Google Slide and shared with us before the deadline. One reason we switched to Google Slides is for feedback. We allow our students to turn in projects early, and we make comments on each slide. Then the students can resubmit (if they want) up until the deadline. Most of our students take advantage of this gift.

This is a great project, and it's always fun to see what our students come up with!

Here is our project: Polynomial Hunt Project

Here is the RUBRIC that we created using Alice Keeler's Template Tab. (If you have not tried this - you must now!!!!)

Here's the version that is fully in Desmos.

~RJ & SSB

Comments

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Girl Math

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