Problems In Context Part A Cubic Function

Carrie Deveney Dawn Glefke Jessica Vogl Alissa Zalewski

To learn about students interests in order to create cubic math problems, our function family decided to survey the 8th grade algebra students at Creekside Middle School. Since two of our group members are currently volunteering at Creekside Middle School for their service learning experience, we decided that we could receive the most data between the two members if choosing Creekside. On Friday, February 15th, Jessica collected data from first and second hour and Alissa collected information from fourth and fifth hour, overall collecting around sixty surveys. Creekside Middle School is located about 20 minutes outside of Grand Valley in Zeeland. They consider themselves a suburban school district, as there are about 6,000 students total enrolled in Zeeland Public Schools. The majority of the students were white, although there were sufficient amount of Hispanic students. To collect information about the interests of 8th grade algebra students, Jessica printed out surveys asking what their favorite hobbies are, favorite snacks were, and where their favorite place to visit is. After sorting through the results, we came to find that the most popular categories of hobbies were: hanging out with friends, sports, arts (dance, art, building, playing an instrument), shopping, reading, music, videogames, and music. For snacks, we obtained a large variety of answers. The most popular results were: pizza, ice cream, chocolate, candy, fast food, fruit, baked goods, pop, pasta, cookies, chips, and the list goes on. Favorite places to visit had many specific answers that we needed to group them into categories. From most popular to least we found that students liked to visit: another State, Mexico, another country, family's place (cottage or relative's house), and somewhere else in Michigan.

Problems in Context Part B

Alissa Zalewski Winter 2013

Chichn Itz

What is the Chichn Itz?

The Chichn Itz is an ancient Mexican monument located in the eastern portion of Yucatn state in Mexico. The Chichen Itza is estimated to have been developed between 750 and 900 BC by the Mayan people, intended to be a spiritual, ceremonial site. Today, the Chichen Itza is considered to be one of the 7 wonders of the world. This historical monument was constructed with limestone. The bottom layer of the pyramid covers approximately 5 square kilometers of land. Not including the temple on the top, there are 9 layers of the pyramid, which represent 9 eras, all of which are equal in height. The pyramid is 24 meters tall without the temple, and 30 meters total.

Exploration
For the sake of this problem, we will assume that the pyramid is made with cubed blocks of bricks, each length of the block being 4 bricks long. 1. How many bricks are in each individual block?

2.

Disregarding the stairs, each horizontal face of the top layer of the fourssided pyramid is approximately 1 row of 6 blocks. a. How many blocks make up this layer if there are no holes or gaps in the layer?

b.

How many bricks are needed to make this layer?

3.

Assume the pyramid grows as indicated in the picture below with each layer being a solid square of blocks made from bricks.

(This picture shows the number of blocks for layers 1, 2, and 3 on one side of the pyramid.)

a. Layer # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Complete the rest of the following table. Total # of Blocks in layer Total # of Blocks for this and all previous layers Total # of Bricks in layer Total # of Bricks for all previous layers

b. Graph the data in the space below. You will have 4 graphs when you are finished. Make sure to label. (To see the shape of the graph better, try continuing the pattern and by adding a few points.)

4. a. Create an equation for each graph.

b. Which of your equations are related to each other? How are they related?