Introduction to Exponential Functions

It's a zombie takeover!!!

There are so many ways you can incorporate zombies and exponential functions. My entire unit is full of infections and how they spread. This introduction just happened to be about the zombie virus.

This is a very simple activity that I do before I start teaching exponentials and logarithms. I used the idea from Better Lessons, and I really feel that students can visualize how the infection is spreading and relate it to exponential growth.

At the start of the lesson, I show the G Slides presentation. I call one student up to the front of the classroom. They have now been infected! This student then picks another student to become infected. Those two students pick one student each, and so on... You get the picture.

I have a student worksheet, and I like for students to collaborate in pairs and discuss the answers to the questions. When it came time to write the equation, half of the class had y = 2x and the other y = 2^x. This created great discussions about the differences and similarities between linear and exponential equations.

I enjoy this activity! Hearing the students' discussions and watching them connect the math makes me smile! :)

For the opening presentation click HERE!

For the student worksheet, click HERE!

~RJ

Comments

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