Education Technology


Step Up

Activity Overview

In this activity, students will explore the concept of slope. They will measure the vertical height (rise) and horizontal length (run) of a set of stairs then find the ratio to describe the steepness. A graph will then be created to show the relationship.

Key Steps

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    Students will explore the concept of slope. First, students will measure the rise and run of stairs identified (or created) by the teacher. Measurements in centimeters will be converted to inches.

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    Then, students draw a replication of the stairs on the TI-73 Explorer™ and use the Manual-Fit command to find the slope-intercept form of the equation.

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    Finally, students compare their original equation to a generic form where they adjust the coefficients and observe the impact on the graph.