Trick-or-Treat with NumWorks
Tina Nocella
And somehow, it’s already October! The beginning of the year feels like a distant past and yet it also feels like we just met these students yesterday. October is a month full of fall festivities, colder weather, and cozy sweaters. With Halloween coming up, we know some teachers will enjoy using our fall-themed activities in their classrooms. For this year, we are excited to share a brand new fall-themed activity made in collaboration with our friends at NumWorks!
This activity was designed to help students apply their knowledge of systems of inequalities. It’s perfect for Algebra 1 or Algebra 2, or for any students who could benefit from a little algebra review.
Part 1: Where Can We Go Trick-or-Treating?
Students will start by using their current knowledge of lines to graph the streets that surround the NumWorks Neighborhood by hand. Once they identify the region that represents the neighborhood, they will get to explore more specific features (coordinates of the intersections, overlapping shaded regions, nonlinear elements, etc.) with the NumWorks board. This board will allow students to easily identify the restricted trick-or-treating region, even with the inclusion of the haunted Math Medic Mansion!
Part 2: Will I Make a Profit?
Part 2 continues with systems of inequalities, but now through the lens of making a profit. We want students to use their intuition and background knowledge of financial literacy when entering these problems, and not start with the formal graphical approach. However, we also want to create the need for a graphical approach when we consider all possible solutions without the headache of checking each possibility with the system algebraically. Students can explore the profitable region by sketching a graph, but the ability to use technology to find exact points and multiple solutions can be extremely useful in this activity.
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We hope this fall-themed activity helps your students compare and contrast the benefits of sketching graphs by hand versus using graphs generated by technology, as both have something to offer. If you are interested in trying out a free NumWorks calculator, check out this link!
About the Author
Tina Nocella
Tina is a former high school math teacher where she taught nearly every high school math course. She believes the best math classrooms are places where students learn from one another, build on what they already know, and see themselves as capable mathematicians. Tina joins the content team in building lessons + assessments + resources, writing blogs, and supporting the work to ensure student knowledge is the catalyst for each lesson – embracing the heart of EFFL.