From: Andrea <andreadwells@gmail.com>
To: Teacher2Teacher Public Discussion
Date: 2007062218:45:03
Subject: Re: Re: Re: methods of teaching math



To show that slope is rate of change, you can come up with lots of
real-world situations for your graphs (especially y = mx + b). 

For example: 
Your cell phone bill is $50 per month if you don't go over any
minutes. For every minute you go over, it's $0.25 more. 

So then you can graph this, write the equation, the slope is $0.25 and
the y-intercept is 50.

Or
You start school with three friends. Every week, you make two more
friends.

Or 
You start with two dogs. They have 6 puppies every year.

Or 
You win $1000 in the lottery, and you put it in the bank. Every month,
you earn $1 in interest which you put back in the bank.

You can graph all these and ask students lots of fun questions about
them. Then give them equations and ask them to identify m and b and
write situations describing the equations.

FUN!

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