Skip to main content

Polynomials: The Roller Coaster Project



At some point in your high school math teacher career, I'm sure you've heard of this project.  I was introduced to it about 7 years ago from a former colleague who loved playing with math as much as I do.  I haven't used it in a while, not sure why though 😦.  But I pulled it back out again this semester- and it went well!  Feel free to make a copy for yourself; just click here.

I only did Part 1 with my students.  It came down to lack of time and the class itself- we can't spend too much time on any one project, they get bored and lose interest pretty fast.  But I think Part 2 of this project would be great for an Honors Math 3 class with a little time on their hands!

Here's the gist: students are asked to look at three different models of a roller coaster and evaluate different aspects of polynomials such as zeros, relative max/min, increasing/decreasing, and using values to find heights at certain time intervals.  On top of this, learners are asked to explain what these values mean in relation to the actual roller coaster and describe if it makes sense in a real-world situation.  It's pretty cool.

I hope you enjoy!

~ssb

Comments

  1. Math ChickApril 28, 2023 at 8:25 AM

    I have enjoyed all of the materials you have shared! Would you mind sharing this project with me? The link on the site says it does not exist anymore once you click it!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Exponential Growth & Decay Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Hunts are always fun (and easy to grade). This particular one is all about applications of exponential growth & decay. My students seem to understand this topic really well, but I still wanted to provide more practice.  When I did this hunt originally, I created the cards with the answer on the front and the question on the back. Once I figured out how to copy and make it work, it was great because I could use the cards over and over again. However, they started looking old, and I lost some of the cards. So t his year, I placed the answer and question on the front. It made it so much easier to copy!  If you would like to try this in your class, here is a copy ! I included the solutions as well.  UPDATE: I created this activity and transformed into a remote version.  Remote Version: SE Scavenger Hunt               TE Scavenger Hunt ~RJ
Post a Comment
Read more

AP Calculus Hunger Games Review

I created this a couple of years ago when Hunger Games was really popular. However, I thought that I would share with all of you in case you wanted to use or revamp to something newer.  I created 12 groups for the 12 districts. They decided what their name would be as a district. They had tasks each day to accomplish. The tasks were just multiple choice questions centered around the major topics of Calculus AB. This took a lot longer than I thought - about 4 days. I was forced to give them more than 15 minutes for each task (which did not make me happy since the AP exam is timed - Oh well.) I had the time, and it worked out.  You can decide how you want to the points to work, I gave them 2 points for each correct answer. It was very easy to grade as this is the student worksheet. They placed the letter of the answer in each spot.  I made them show all work on another student sheet so that I could see what we needed to review.  Each day, I would ...
2 comments
Read more

Adding & Subtracting Rational Expressions Drag & Drop

Because Math 3 now has drag & drop on the final exam, students need the practice. So, I created one using Google Slides. It went over really well!  While this only took the students about 40-45 minutes to complete, it took me about 2 days to create this activity. Oh well, at least it is cute! :) I used Google Drawings to create the scene and took a screenshot of the drawing to post as the background in Google Slides. This worked so that students could only move the answers.  I created this for an Honors class and one of the problems (#5 - the one pictured) really stumped the kiddos. I loved it! They kept thinking that x - 1 was not part of the common denominator...they didn't realize that they needed to simplify after subtracting. It really made them think!   When they were finished, they shared it with me! I really think that this helped the kids get more practice on drag & drop while working on adding and subtracting rational expressions!...
9 comments
Read more