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Graphing and the Coordinate Plane
Abstract
This lesson is designed to introduce students to graphing ordered
pairs of numbers on the coordinate plane.
Objectives
Upon completion of this lesson, students will:
- have been introduced to the Cartesian coordinate plane
- understand the four quadrants of the Cartesian coordinate plane
- be able to plot points on the plane
- be able to read coordinates for a point from a graph
- be able to give the ratio of rise over run for slope
Activities
This lesson introduces students to graphing ordered pairs of numbers on the coordinate plane through the following activities:
Standards
The activities and discussions in this lesson address the following
Standards:
- Number sense, number operations and number relationships
- Patterns, relationships and functions
Key Terms
This lesson introduces students to the following terms through the included discussions:
Student Prerequisites
- Arithmetic: Students must be able to:
- perform integer and fractional arithmetic
- Algebraic: Students must be able to:
- work with very simple linear algebraic expressions
- Technological Students must be able to:
- perform basic mouse manipulations such as point, click and drag
- use a browser such as Netscape for experimenting with the activities
Teacher Preparation
Students will need:
- Access to a browser
- pencil and graph paper
- Copies of supplemental materials for the activities:
Lesson Outline
These activities can be done individually or in teams of as many as four students.
Allow for 1-2 hours of class time for the entire lesson if all portions
are done in class.
- Lead a discussion on the number
line and the coordinate plane.
- Practice the students' point plotting skills by having them play the
Coordinates! Game
The game allows users to figure out and to practice using the coordinate plane for giving the "address" or exact location of particular points.
- Have the students practice their graphing skills on
graph paper using the tables of values
they generated in the lessons on Functions
and Linear Functions.
- Have the students test their skills by playing the
Maze Game.
Alternate Outlines
This lesson can be rearranged in several ways.
- Omit one or the other of the computer activities to reduce the amount of
time spent.
- Add a discussion about fractional movement on the coordinate plane.
- For students who aren't ready to handle negative numbers yet,
replace the Coordinates activity with the positive numbers only
alternate versions:
- Motivate the next lesson by using
Simpleplot to
plot the tables of points that the students generated.
Suggested Follow-Up
After these discussions and activities, students will be
have learned to plot points on the coordinate plane and to
read the coordinates off of a graph. The next lesson
Functions and Graphs will introduce students to the graphical
representation of functions.
Please direct questions and comments about this project to Addison-Wesley
math@aw.com
© Copyright 1997-2001
The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.
© Copyright 2001 Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.
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