Education Technology


Discriminant Testing

Activity Overview

Discover the relationship between the value of the discriminant and the nature of the roots of quadratic functions.

Objectives

  • Students will determine the relationship between the value of the discriminant and the nature of the roots of a quadratic function.
  • Students will use the value of the discriminant to identify the number of roots of a quadratic function.
  • Students will identify whether, based on the value of the discriminant, the graph of a quadratic function intersects the x-axis in zero, one, or two points.
  • Students will determine the nature of the roots based upon the graph of a quadratic function.

Vocabulary

  • discriminant
  • quadratic formula
  • parameters
  • nature of the roots

About the Lesson

This lesson involves discovering the relationship between the value of the discriminant and the nature of the roots of quadratic functions. As a result, students will:

  • Use a slider to generate graphs of random quadratic functions.
  • Make conclusions about the relationship between the value of the discriminant and the nature of the roots for the three cases.