Education Technology


Quartic Inflection

Activity Overview

This activity introduces students to an interesting property of fourth degree polynomials and a method of proving that property using the TI-89 scripts. They then use the CAS of their TI-89 to generalize upon specific results.

Before the Activity

Students should have access to the TI-89/TI-89 Titanium and TI-92 Plus/Voyage 2000.

During the Activity

This activity introduces students to an interesting property of fourth degree polynomials and a method of proving that property using the TI-89 scripts. They then use the CAS of their TI-89 to generalize upon specific results. The document attached is the activity guide.

After the Activity

Review student answers:

  • As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
  • Re-teach concepts as necessary