From: Claudia (for Teacher2Teacher Service)
Date: Mar 15, 1998 at 21:03:28
Subject: Re: Factoring and quadratics

One of the easiest applications involved with "factoring" involves the concept of 
area. If these folks had used algebra tiles, they might have a better sense of 
what factoring is good for.  

Create a tiling-the-floor problem where the students have to figure out what
appropriate tile size would fit. Throw in a cost factor and different sizes of 
tiles?  

There is a nice book entitled Algebra Experiments II that deals with non-linear 
functions and nice applications of quadratic functions. I believe the books can be
purchased from Dale Seymour. There are also some CBL (Calculator based laboratory) 
activity books that show applications of quadratics.

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