Activity Overview
This activity involves some of the prerequisites of calculus relating to functions and equations. It also contains an application of differentiation.
Before the Activity
This activity introduces students to an interesting property of cubics and a method of proving that property using the graphing calculator's scripts. Students then use the symbolic capacity of their calculator to generalize upon specific results.
See the attached Activity PDF file(s) for detailed instructions for this activity.
During the Activity
Follow the procedures outlined in the activity.
Students will:
Be able to understand the relationship between the x-coordinates of the three zeros of a cubic.
After the Activity
Review student results:
As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
Re-teach concepts as necessary