Curve Sketching

Five RISP starters revise ideas of polynomials and curve-sketching, cover expanding brackets, solving equations graphically, and knowing how to sketch the graphs of curves.

Gold and Silver Cuboid requires the students to use a graph plotter to explore the effects of changing coefficients of a cubic equation. The investigation is extended to finding a connection between the volume surface area and edge length of a cuboid formed using the solutions to the cubic.

Almost identical: requires students to use a graph plotter to find a quadratic graph which matches a hyperbolic function.

Graphing tiles is a practical activity linking curve-sketching, co-ordinate geometry and simultaneous equations in which students have to use the tiles provided to make sensible graphs.

Index triples is an activity which consolidates ideas on indices. Students have to make as many different values using the three given numbers.

Parabolic Clues, asks students to use clues to deduce the coefficients of a parabola.

• URL: http://stem.org.uk/rx3mt