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.