Students have started to learn about factoring polynomials. First, they learned how to factor by looking for the greatest common factor of all the terms in the polynomial. Next, students looked for patterns when multiplying the sum of two terms by their difference. Using what they noticed, students determined how to work backwards, factoring the difference of two squares.
Students are now working on factoring trinomials. To start this topic, we returned back to algebra tiles. Students were given a bag with a certain number of algebra tiles and were told to arrange them into a rectangle. They then recorded what each length of the rectangle represented and determined what polynomial all of the tiles together represented. We discussed how this procedure was the opposite of what they had done when multiplying binomials, since they were now determining which two binomials could be multiplied together to get a specific trinomial.
We have been doing several activities to practice factoring trinomials. One activity was the puzzle pictured below. Each side of the triangle pieces either had a trinomial or the product of two binomials on it. Working in groups, the students arranged the triangles so that equivalent expressions were matched. Once all of the pieces were arranged correctly, they formed a hexagon.
Students are now working on factoring trinomials. To start this topic, we returned back to algebra tiles. Students were given a bag with a certain number of algebra tiles and were told to arrange them into a rectangle. They then recorded what each length of the rectangle represented and determined what polynomial all of the tiles together represented. We discussed how this procedure was the opposite of what they had done when multiplying binomials, since they were now determining which two binomials could be multiplied together to get a specific trinomial.
We have been doing several activities to practice factoring trinomials. One activity was the puzzle pictured below. Each side of the triangle pieces either had a trinomial or the product of two binomials on it. Working in groups, the students arranged the triangles so that equivalent expressions were matched. Once all of the pieces were arranged correctly, they formed a hexagon.