This lesson unit is intended to help teahcers assess how well students are able to interpret speed as the slope of a linear graph and translate between the equation of a line and its graphical representation.

The following materials include a Common Core-aligned task and formative assessments which may be integrated into a currently existing curriculum. The final task assesses student mastery of the standards related to linear functions.

In this lesson, students interpret the rate of change and initial value of a line in context. Students interpret slope as rate of change and relate slope to the steepness of a line and the sign of the slope, indicating that a linear function is increasing if the slope is positive and decreasing if the slope is negative.

Determine the rate of coastal erosion by estimating changes in historical aerial photos.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team in partnership with the North Carolina Virtual Public Schools. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 8th Grade Math. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team in partnership with the North Carolina Virtual Public Schools. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 8th Grade Math. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team in partnership with the North Carolina Virtual Public Schools. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 8th Grade Math. 

In this task students draw the graphs of two functions from verbal descriptions. Both functions describe the same situation but changing the viewpoint of the observer changes where the function has output value zero. This small twist forces the students to think carefully about the interpretation of the dependent variable.

For this activity, students determine if buying a new toilet will save them money.

This activity is to be used when analyzing graphs during a functions unit. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This is a simple task about interpreting the graph of a function in terms of the relationship between quantities that it represents.

This task presents an opportunity to explore a more general and non-algebraic view of functions.

Students use authentic spectral data from the Cassini mission of Saturn and Saturn's moon, Titan, gathered by instrumentation developed by engineers. Taking these unknown data, and comparing it with known data, students determine the chemical composition of Saturn's rings and Titan's atmosphere.

In this task students interpret two graphs that look the same but show very different quantities. The first graph gives information about how fast a car is moving while the second graph gives information about the position of the car. This problem works well to generate a class or small group discussion. Students learn that graphs tell stories and have to be interpreted by carefully thinking about the quantities shown.

During this lesson the students will review plotting points on a Coordinate Plane through an interactive website. They will also practice changing the slope and y-intercept on the website in order to see the effects. After this review, the students will work in groups to plot points and use slope to spell out letters of the alphabet. The students will then unscramble the letters to spell out "We Love to Graph!"