Education Technology


An Introduction to Inverse Variation

Activity Overview

In this lesson, students will explore the properties of inverse variation functions by analyzing a scatter plot that is produced by the students. This lesson uses the Activity Center in TI-Navigator.

Before the Activity

Set up your TI-Navigator system. Make sure that you are familiar with the basic functions of TI-Navigator: Send to Class, Collect from Class, Activity Center, Screen Capture and Quick Poll.

During the Activity

1. Hand out the worksheet to students. Assign each student their special number which will represent the speed of the car. 2. Start the Activity Center to collect a point from each student. (If your class is small, you may want to collect 2 or 3 points from students so that you have enough data.) 3. When you have collected all the points, send this back to the students as L1 and L2. (I found it easier to send these lists from the teacher's calculator.) Direct students to make a scatter plot with the data. (You can do a screen capture at this point to make sure that all students have a scatter plot.) 4. Ask students to make a new list, L3, which will be the product of L1 and L2. Ask them what they notice. There is a place on the worksheet to record this information. (You can do a screen capture at this point.) 5. Students should notice that there seems to be a pattern. Ask students to go to y= to graph an equation to model this data. You can use the Activity Center to get this equation from everyone or you can use a screen capture. (Students may need some help at this time.) 5. Review the properties of inverse variation functions with the class.

After the Activity

Assess your students' understanding of inverse variation.