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Parabola Graphing: Completing the Square - Standard Form to Vertex Form

Author
Subject Area
Math: Algebra II: Quadratics
Level
9-12
Activity Time
30 Minutes
TI Calculator
TI-Nspire CX series
Resource Types
Lessons

Parabola Graphing: Completing the Square - Standard Form to Vertex Form

Activity Overview

This document is designed to either introduce or review how to use "completing the square" to rewrite an equation of a parabola from standard form into vertex form.
Standard form: y = a*x^(2) + b*x + c.
Vertex form: y = a*(x - h)^(2) + v.
Four different examples will be given. Every step is clearly illustrated.
The reader is encouraged to do the problems on paper while studying this document.

Before the Activity

This activity can be assigned as either an introduction to using 'completing the square' to graph parabolas or as a review for students who have unfortunately forgotten this exciting technique.

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Author
Subject Area
Math: Algebra II: Quadratics
Level
9-12
Activity Time
30 Minutes
TI Calculator
TI-Nspire CX series
Resource Types
Lessons
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