Being Thankful_Rule of 3

Only 3 school days this week!

3 resources
Check out my website for some 3.3 sample resources
(D-period should check some HW before class tomorrow)

Check the website for Old Trig. problems to practice, meaning you can expect some more difficult SOH-CAH-TOA problems.  Practice the tough ones to night and check with your classmates

The internet - One thing I want everyone (C and D-period) to do by Tuesday and search for, and print out a good one page unit circle memory sheet.  You can also look ahead into Ch. 3 to see what is coming up as well.

REFLECTION FROM LAST WEEK

72% of C-period got an 80% or above on the first part of the "Quest".  The most missed question involved translating an angle to radians and leaving the result"in terms of pi" as a fraction in simplest term.    The second most missed concept involved converting angular velocity to revolutions per minute (see HW 3.3)

 

KEY GOAL OF THE WEEK STARTING 11/19/12

Know the exact and approximate values of the sine, cosine, and tangent of

 0º, 30º, 45º, 60º, 90º, 180º, and 270º angles

Newport RI 41 29

Question of the week: (due next class) 

The town of Newport, RI is located at approximately 41 degrees 29 minutes North.  This is the latitude of Newport, RI.

Use this information to determine

a) the decimal degrees of Newport

b) how many miles Newport is from the equator (nearest mile) and

c) the angle (in radians) a turn would it be to measure from the core of the Earth from the equator up to Newport’s latitude. 

You may need to do some digging to see if you can find conversions from “latitude” to actual miles.

EVERYBODY is expected to do this on paper and hand it in next time we meet. 

The first three students to post an answer in the comments section (just answer one part in the comments section of this blog) and explain in a short sentence how they got the number will receive their HW credit AND a homework pass or reduced HW assignment for the upcoming quarter.

  Quarter One Reflection

In our classroom management plan and on the quarter one pacing guide, I mentioned a goal of having over “80% above 80” above on each assessment.  This means for our 20 student class, 16 scored above an 80%.   

This happened for C-period on Friday 3.1/3.2 quiz and nearly happened for D-period (one student off).    Great job!  

Since this helped your scores, I put it in for the 1^st quarter grades.  (HW grades are not in yet and nothing will be final until after Tuesday on icue, don't obsess about checking).

Looking forward

 We are just getting started in Chapter 3, which is the “real trig.”  We will be continuing on with section 3.3 but also following up with some of the things I found out in the pre-test (that Geometry one).  Most people understand similar triangle material (a foundation of trigonometry) but enough students did not understand straight forward “SOH CAH TOA” problems that I need to build that into our lessons this week.  If you do understand this (more than half of us) please help out those around you when this comes up again.

 Quarter 2 Changes

While watching the Patriot game and checking the Ch. 2 homeworks, it is clear to me we have some very strong leaders with HW, some in the middle who are doing it but not always getting it, and a few who don’t routinely do HW.  One change I am making for next quarter is to let my leaders lead more.  If all students (100%) check in with homework each day with those around you, your scores (and more importantly your understanding) will go up.  I wil be speaking with my “leaders” and I will be collecting daily Homework from those students who scored very low during quarter one for homework.  If it is still not getting done we will have mandatory “overtime”, coming in after school.

I plan on switching up the seats a little bit too, if you have a preference in the part of the room or know you want to be near someone you work well with, shoot me an email at gsteppen@mpsri.net before Tuesday. 

Now go determine that partial simple distance around part of the earth problem.  Be sure to cite any sources you have about conversions, radius of the Earth or anything.

Mr. Steppen

Unit Conversion_extra credit opportunity

This week we are really getting into the new stuff, actual Trig!

We have converted graphed angles in standard position and talked about what it means to be coterminal and convert from decimal degrees to degrees-minutes-seconds(3.1). 

Today (Monday) we learned how to convert degrees to radians and vice-versa.  It all boils down to a complete circle having 360-degrees and if we know the definition of a radian, a complete circle is 2pi radians.  And a more useful version is that every 180-degrees is equivalent to pi radians.

Extra credit opportunity:

For C-period, we did not define a radian clearly.  The first person from C-period to explain what a radian is in the comments section of this blog gets 10 credits of HW applied to Q1 or a free HW pass for next quarter.  I recommend going to www.khanacademy.org and searching "radian".  One of the videos should give a clear explanation.  Post a comment below with your definition and put your initials or name at the end of the comment.

For D-period, we did define radian.  So the first D-period student to state exactly how many radians comprise a full circle (to the nearest hundredth) you get the same extra credit deal.  Just state the number and put your initials or name in the comments section.

Quarter Ends Friday.  So we are pretty much done except what I am checking for HW and one short 3.1/3.2 quiz Thursday or Friday. 

If you are reading this and did not do the "function drawing" HW on the back of the jack o lantern sheet, that can be handed in by the end of the week as a HW credit to bring up you grade.

Don't need power

to do Homework!  Hopefully, everyone is enjoying and being safe with these couple of days off of school.

What a great time to be sure all of you homework problems are complete as we finish up chapter 2.

Do you understand graphically...what tools are you using?

We will be wrapping up the Functions Graphing Chapter this week (Chapter 2)

There will be about three new objectives we have to learn by mid-week and the Chapter 2 Test will most likely be Thursday or Friday and cover all the chapter 2 material except 2.7/2.8 (which will not be covered or assessed).

Here is an overview of the new learning targets for this week:

Be able to …                               

            factor using multiple techniques (including completing the square  and by grouping)

            write a quadratic equation given a graph and vertex
(connect to transformations understanding)

            find all zeros (real and non-real) of polynomial functions and understand multiplicity

In addition, we will be practicing material (especially real-life applications) of the functions material we learned in section 2.1-2.6. 

Speaking of real-life applications.  Most real-life situations that can be modeled by functions are not "factorable".   If you are completing a take home quiz or have a quiz coming up you need to be very familiar with finding zeros of functions and using other graphing calculator tools like intersections, etc.

For the large number of you who have not purchased your own graphing calculator, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.  I did not have mine at home this weekend and did find some online versions.  If you are using any online application be sure you can find zeros and intersections of functions.  A quick search (and updating my java) did allow me do find one decent online calculator.  You can try this one if you have not found something already.  http://www.calculator-grapher.com/

Again, we are not just drawing graphing graphs.  We are finding solutions. Many online version or "apps" draw nice graphs. But you need to do calculatoins with precision and are expected to be able to do that at home.

If anyone wants to share a good site and/or post some images from online calculator website.  Please do so in the comments section.

Quadratics!

This week will be another week partially interupted by the NECAP exam.  The good news is that the next few sections we are covering are really review of Quadratics and Polynomials (and may help you prepare for the NECAP as well). 

Tomorrow, we will review different types of factoring and discuss a good common approach to factoring Quadratics and Polynomials and will practice with a fun puzzle activity.

I really need to get a good idea of how well you know the 2.3 - 2.5 material and if you completed this weekends handout, that will give me (and you) and great idea of where you are at.

In fact, as a bonus, if you are reading this tonight and go to my website:  http://www.mpsri.net/page.cfm?p=1567 you will find worked out solutions to 2.4 - 2.5 posted under Chapter 2 resources.

If you bring in any evidence that you review this site before class tomorrow, or just simply comment that you checked out this blog tonight, you will earn 5 points extra credit for this Homework.  I will try and post another handout on the website tonight too, that give you a better description of how to score yourself. 

Good luck on the NECAP and don't forget, you can access  many of the released problems from 2007 - 2011 and check your solutions if you do a little poking around on the internet. 

Function Graphing (Ch. 2 week 1)

General - This week we will be  our understanding of graphing different types of functions compared to their parent functions, describing those comparisons algebraically and using math vocabulary, and recognizing even and odd functions.   We will be using a graphing calculator lesson to understand those connections and you will get some feedback (in fact some sample student work with feedback will be posted on the website after Tuesday’s lesson.  The two main text sections this week are 2.2 and 2.1.

3 Key Graphing Process Goals

• Numerically – Recognize and label key feature coordinates (usually 3-5) and show work using a table of values
• Algebraically – Understanding from various forms of given function(s).                                     y = a (x – h)^?+k       and where it will graph relative to parent function (translate, reflect, dilate, etc.) because of the given coefficients.
• Verbally – Once you see the patterns, you need to build your math vocabulary to describe what is going on with each function

3 Key Products (All due the class after they are assigned)

·         Text HW  2.2 70/12-30  show given graphs with key features labeled, draw resulting diagrams using a different color pen.  See sample solutions to HW 2.2 on website for guidance about what level of detail is expected to earn a 4 for homework

• Handout 2.2b – Backside of Transformations Handout (after receiving exit slip feedback)

·         HW 2.1   61/Practice 1-27,34

                                                                      Most likely will have a 2.1 – 2.2 quiz after Weds.

Other Comments

If you did poorly on the Ch. 1 Test, you are expected to make corrections to your exam , redo any missed or incomplete Ch. 1 homework and then see Mr. Steppen about a retake exam.