All students of Pre-Calculus 12 classes combined their learning from their whole math unit up to Christmas with a creative twist. Students graphed functions and equations from what they had learned in the unit, to create a holiday themed card.
“I saw that Ms. McArthur had done a similar project with her grade 10 students, and it reminded me of project I did 15 years ago with students on paper,” said Ms. Trisha Hubbard, a Pre-Calculus 12 teacher who introduced the project. She explained that with Riverside having the technology to take it to a whole new level, she wanted to make the project something different that would help students gain more of an appreciation for math that is fun.
Student Daveen Yang’s process involved first drawing out the functions of the shape she wanted to include on paper, and then thinking of functions she knows to show the shapes on the graph. “In the beginning, the project was harder than I expected it to be, and that was because I was overthinking it! Although there were some challenges, it wasn’t impossible,” said Yang.
Yang recalls that one of the harder challenges of the project was colouring the shapes she had graphed in the beginning. “I was able to visual the functions in my head first, then I had to figure out how the different numbers would change the graph,” she said.
Students posted and reflected their holiday card project on their Edu Blogs. “There was so much to learn from this project, I think that the students understanding of Pre Calc 12 has improved significantly,” said Hubbard. When asked if she would do the project again, Hubbard responded with “Absolutely!”
Feature photo courtesy of Daveen Yang’s project
