A teacher's guide on teaching the connection between the definition and equation of a parabola, and how to get from one to the other.
This classroom activity presents College Algebra students with a ConcepTest, a Question of the Day, and a Write-pair-share activity concerning the effect of the coefficient of x^0 (i.e., the constant, c) on the vertex of a parabola where a and b are arbitrarily fixed values in f(x)=ax^2+bx+c.
This classroom activity presents College Algebra students with a ConcepTest, a Question of the Day, and a Write-pair-share activity concerning the effect of the coefficient of x^2 on the vertex of a parabola where a>0, b>0 and b and c are fixed values in f(x)=ax^2+bx+c.
This classroom activity presents College Algebra students with a ConcepTest, a Question of the Day, and a Write-pair-share activity concerning the effect of the coefficient of x on the vertex of a parabola where a>0, b<0 and a and c are fixed values in f(x)=ax^2+bx+c.
This exploration can be done in class near the beginning of a unit on graphing parabolas. Students need to be familiar with intercepts, and need to know what the vertex is.