Thursday, September 30, 2010

Today's opener (pdf) contained three problems very similar to what's on tomorrow's assessment.

Then for our lesson (pdf) we looked at applying a linear equation in slope-intercept form to the problem of determining how long it takes alcohol to leave the human body. Hopefully you have an even greater appreciation for the dangers of driving under the influence, driving while ability impaired, and just the general knowledge that it takes an awfully long time to get back to normal ability after ingesting alcohol.

While I would hope that as you begin to drive you make good driving decisions at least partly because you don't want to hurt yourself, your friends, or other folks you come into contact with, you might also want to watch the following for more selfish reasons to be smart.





Your homework for tomorrow is:

1. Finish the lesson (pdf) we did in class today. Make sure you wrote down the correct slope, y-intercept and equation (steps 3-5) before trying to do the rest. (slope = -0.015, y-intercept is (0, .19), equation is y = -0.015x + .19. As I mentioned at the end of class, for step 13 you're simply substituting in the new slope -0.01 for -0.015 in the original equation, so y = -0.01x + .19, and then answering questions 9-12 with that equation.
   
   
2. Prepare for the Graphing Linear Equations by Using Slope-Intercept Assessment. There are a variety of ways to do that including, but not limited to: review the online pre-assessment; review your notebook and/or the openers and lessons posted on the blog; review the video, work some practice problems in your textbook or that you find online. You can, of course, also get help from me, another math teacher, a teacher in the Study Center, a peer tutor in the Study Center, or a parent, sibling or friend. Do whatever works best for you, but make sure you're prepared. The expectation is that you should all be able to do very well on this assessment.
   
   
3. If you need to, organize your notebook. Everything should be in there: notes from each day of class (including openers and notes you take during the lessons), worksheets we've done, assessments you've taken, and your student checklist for all your assessments. This can really help you prepare for each assessment and to prepare for the final exam - but you need to keep it organized.