Setting - Background

Lesson Setting
Technology, Target, & Themes

What follows is a proposed lesson plan for middle-school mathematics students. The target classes are mostly pre-algebra students with a varied educational background.

The lesson can be conducted in a standard classroom environment, though it lends itself easily to cooperative learning techniques. There are many opportunities for follow-up excercises, some of which could be conducted outside the classroom with students taking measurements or conducting research - either independently or as a group.

This lesson will take advantage of a class set of graphing calculators. The calculators available to students are capable of simplifying many types of calculations. The aids can handle complex arithmetic, display plots and graphs, and conduct minor data analysis. This lesson will exploit these features to allow students to verify and extend their calculations by traditional (manual) means.