An Introduction
This unit is about the equations of straight lines. These equations can take various forms
depending on the facts we know about the lines. So to start, suppose we have a straight line containing the points in the following list.
The y-intercept of a line
Consider the straight line with equation y = 2x + 1. This equation is in a slightly different form from those we have seen earlier. To draw a sketch of the line, we must calculate some values.
My grade 8 students just started to learn this topic recently. Based on our curriculum, we develop several techniques / methods to present this topic. Which methods will be suitable for your students? Of course, each teachers will find the most suitable method to accomodate their students.
Instead of doing it all manually, I asked them to download application in their laptop / gadget and use it in our class during lesson. They could easily find the line graph representing the linear equations, whether the form in ax + by = c or y = mx + c.
Some applications can be downloaded for free are www.graphmatica.com , www.keypress.com , www.geogebra.org , quick graph from i tunes.
At the end, they must print out the screen capture of several graphs. I compiled them all and show it on the wall my classroom or in form of booklet.
Here some results:
