Education Technology

Domain, Range and Function Mapping

Activity Overview

Students explore the concept of domain, range and function mapping through a variety of visual representations. Interactive sets, ordered pairs and graphs provide for opportunities for students to explore, the idea is then flipped as students build a function to match the domain and range supplied.

Objectives

Understand the concept of a function as a mapping between sets, and as a rule or a formula that defines one variable quantity in terms of another.

Vocabulary

Mapping, domain, range

About the Lesson

Students start by exploring ordered points plotted on the Cartesian plane determining the domain and range. A dynamic representation showing the mapping between the sets is then provided to gain a better understanding of the mapping and then a function machine. Upon completing the discrete examples students are provided graphical examples. Finally students work backwards from a given domain and range students build a function that satisfies the prescribed conditions and summarising their findings for the different mapping options: one to one, many to one, one to many and many to many.