Saturday, March 28, 2015

Zombies and Exponential Functions

While searching for a "fun" and engaging task or activity to introduce linear vs. exponential functions, I found this blog post from Learning with Tape about a zombie outbreak!  AWESOME!  I couldn't resist trying this out in my class.  I teach a remedial class called Algebra AB, which is the first semester of Algebra 1 over the entire year.  I was leery of this activity and knew that I needed to have a very structured activity that held each student accountable for the thinking and processing involved to fully comprehend the basic main goal: to understand that a linear function will have an adding pattern, or increase/decrease at a constant rate and that an exponential function will have a multiplicative pattern and why their graphs are shaped the way that they are. So after much thought, the help of the original idea from Learning with Tape and some zombie clip art I came up with this lesson plan, that involves a fun zombie simulation, an extension activity and an exit ticket.  Students were very engaged and loved the activity!  Success!