Piecewise Functions Scavenger Hunt (PC version)

You may have noticed that we have a piecewise scavenger hunt for all levels of the classes we teach. Well, I promise... they are all different! Each version is intended to challenge that level of student/course and our activities get more rigorous as does the class.

For the Pre-Calculus version, we upped our game. All constraints involve an x-value of 2 and there are a mix of linear and quadratic functions for each card. Feel free to make a copy of this activity here.

As with all scavenger hunts, we have groups of two or three students working together. Cards are posted around the room, students begin at one card, flip it over and complete the task on the back. Once they have an answer, they walk around the room until they find the card with that answer, and repeat this process until they are back to the first card.

The trick is avoiding loops. The trickier trick is making copies of the functions upside-down on the back of the graphs. Whew... that took a few trials!

The best part about having the students active is that no one can hide. I am continuously circulating and talking to groups, ensuring that all members are participating fully. I even almost had to break up a fight because one group member wanted to graph the piecewise function, but the other members wanted to too! I did mention this was graphing piecewise functions, right? I mean they were fighting over who got to put the graph on the paper. Wow.

Enjoy!

~RJ and SSB

Comments

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