Cup Snakes - Describing Linear Change
A video introduction presents the mathematics of cup snakes, a hands on phenomena involving additive change that gives rise to a way to think about linear growth. Modeling this phenomena theoretically, with the help of two cups, and through data, with the help of many, many cups, these videos give rise to some of the big ideas around developing and using linear algebraic models to describe additive bi-variate change. These ideas are then unpacked in the accompanying 'chapter replacement' booklet.
Below you will see two videos that can be used by teachers to get an idea of how to start the unit, or can be used in class as a 'prop' to run the first few lessons. They are hopefully also viewable by students independent of a class situation.
A 'chapter replacement' booklet, complete with e-tech support and answers to questions can be downloaded below.
The 'chapter replacement' unit below starts with the 'cup snake' introduction and develops the ideas involved in linear change, including both deterministic and stochastic contexts and data. The technology utilized within the booklet is the Casio fx-9860G AU Plus, functionally equivalent to the Casio fx-CG20/CG50 AU. The booklet extends into modeling exponential change.