Recently I was teaching my pre-algebra students how to build linear equations. An inquiry based method I implemented in this classroom was to have students roll balls down a ramp and time it in various trials and then build linear equations that represent the position of the ball with respect to time (of course moving particles are usually represented with polynomials but using the average velocity students can build linear equations from it). It did not go very smoothly. I grouped the students up and told them what they need to do in their groups and what data they need to collect. I then told them that using the data they collected they needed to build their linear equations. My pre-algebra students have a very difficult time with this. They went through the motions and performed their trials however they were not sure how to relate their data points to a linear equation. I tried to provide minimal guidance on this as I was trying to get them to explore the topic. This lead to no avail as my students were utterly lost on what to do. I believe this happened because they were not used to having to explore a topic in mathematics. They are used to being given a formula and working from there or reading a word problem and building an equation. They were not entirely sure how to build an equation from scratch from a set of data points. This was due to a lack of scaffolding on my part I believe. We did discuss and practice how to build equations from a table of points which is essentially what they had after gathering their data but there seemed to be something missing that the students couldn't make the jump from building a table themselves to then building their linear equations. Either way it did lead to a good discussion at the end on how to build equations from a series of data as towards the end I guided them through how to build their linear equations.
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December 2019
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