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Polynomials: Finding Zeros Drag and Drop

Have you ever created an activity- spent HOURS making it perfect- and completely messed it up in front of the students?  That's what happened to me with this Polynomials Zeros Drag and Drop. Oddly, it turned into one of the best days I've had with this class!

Here's what went down day of the activity: I sent the students the wrong link.  Of course.  Instead of sharing the student version, I sent them the teacher version.  It was heartbreaking!  The sweet kiddos told me the answers were already on the slides.  I panicked (slightly) and tried to correct my mistake, but you can't unring a bell!  So we went with it.  

Luckily, my students are used to showing all of their work, and they did.  It was actually pretty nice that they could check themselves as they worked.  And they worked.  I was truly amazed how much effort they put into this assignment.  

The activity itself has students solving polynomial functions for zeros- in whichever manner they can remember.  Because of Desmos, almost all of them plugged the equation into the graph first, and then used synthetic division followed by the quadratic formula to find any remaining complex roots.  It went very well.

If you want a copy, just click below:


My colleague, RJ, used this as well.  However, she teaches honors so there are some slight differences in the two versions.

Good luck!

~ssb
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