Louisiana State University

Instructional Models
LSU Team: Macy Terrebonne, Alex Boulet, Sarah
Stump

Mentor Teacher: Ms. Hoffpauir

Course: Algebra I

Date to be Taught: Wednesday, October 16, 2013

School: Port Allen High

Classroom Number:

Time to be Taught: 7:25-8:25

Grade Level: 9th & 10th

Lesson Topic: Exponential Growth

Title of Lesson: Exponential Growth

Source of Lesson: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Frdb8XtxwpjU5Bd5lHgQ72q1-g0kbdI4rulaucxesDw/mobilebasic?pli=1&viewopt=127,
Louisiana Transitional Comprehensive Curriculum." 2011. Louisiana Department of Education. 6 October 2012
<http://www.richland.k12.la.us/documents/common%20core%20standards/cc/math/algebra/algebra%201/12275/Alg1_U7_Final.pdf>.
Description of Concepts to be Taught (include a brief summary of why the lesson is important to students):
When a quantity increases by a fixed percent at regular intervals it is said to have exponential growth. This is important because many events in real life such as
bacteria and medicine involve exponential growth and decay. If an amount changes at a steady rate (for example doubling or tripling), the amount can be
determined by the formula y = ab . In this equation, y is the total amount, a is the input amount, b is the rate at which this amount is growing, and x is the time
passed.
x

Common Core Standards:

F.BF.1Writeafunctionthatdescribesarelationshipbetweentwoquantities.
F.LE.3Observeusinggraphsandtablesthataquantityincreasingexponentiallyeventuallyexceedsaquantityincreasinglinearly,quadratically,or(more
generally)asapolynomialfunction.
Student Learning Objectives:
SWBAT discover the equation for exponential growth.
SWBAT develop the understanding of exponential growth and its relationship to repeated multiplications, rather than repeated additions.
Safety Precautions:
None
Advanced Preparations:

Gather materials, Print worksheets

What the Teacher Will Do

ENGAGEMENT

Approximate Time: 5 minutes

Eliciting Questions and Student Responses

What the Students Will Do

Teacher greets students at the door and gives each

student a Halloween sticker. Three students receive
a vampire sticker, the rest receive one of a variety
of Halloween stickers.

Have you ever done of Vampire math? No.

Students receive Halloween stickers and sit in predetermined groups of four.

Teacher directs vampire simulation by reading the

lesson task.

How would you describe the rate of growth for

the number of vampires in the classroom? We
began with only a few vampires and with each
wave there are more and more vampires. At each
waves, they increase by a greater number.

Students participate in Vampire simulation. Three

students (vampires) stand in the front of the
classroom. Each student picks (bites) another
student to bring in front of the classroom. Those
students each bring another student to the front of
the classroom. This continues until all of the
students are standing in front of the classroom.

Once upon a time, on Halloween eve, three

vampires arrive in the town of Port Allen. At the
stroke of midnight, each vampire bites one person,
and then that person becomes a vampire. Each
vampire bites another person until the entire town
people has become vampires.

TRANSITION
Count off into 6 groups of 4. Move to sit near group. Each group gets one sheet of paper to fold and each student
gets a Folding Paper worksheet.
Approximate Time: 25 min
EXPLORATION
What the Teacher Will Do
Explain the Paper Folding Activity. Remember to
explain how the folding continues.
Direct students to graphing the data they found in
the activity after completing it.

Eliciting Questions and Student Responses

Do you know how many regions you have if you
fold this paper one time? Two
What if you fold the paper again? Four
What it is your independent variable? Number of
folds
What is your dependent variable? Number of
regions
What will you label your x axis? Number of folds
What will you label your y-axis? Number of
regions
What will you title your graph? Paper Folding
Activity

What the Students Will Do

Complete the Paper Folding Activity by following
the directions on the handout.
Graph their data being sure to correctly label axes
and title graph.

Lead students to extrapolating data.

How many regions do you predict there will be

if you fold one more time? _____ Two more
times? ______

Use data and graph to predict future number of

regions.

TRANSITION
Call students attention to full class discussion of activity.
EXPLANATION

Approximate Time: 15 min

What the Teacher Will Do

Eliciting Questions and Student Responses

What the Students Will Do

Choose students to show different examples of how

the graphed the data.

Do you agree with this representation of the

data? No. Why not? My axes are labeled
differently, my point is plotted differently...
Did you see any patterns? Yes
Did you notice any similarities between how the
numbers of vampires grow and how the number
of regions grows? Yes, they start off slow and get
faster as time goes on.
What was your prediction for the number of
regions for the next fold? ____
Can you explain how you got to that answer?
Each time the number of regions doubles
Lets look at the chart you made on your
worksheet. What would happen to each value in
the number of sections column if we started
with two sheets of paper? It doubles. What about
3? Each value is multiplied by 3.
Can somebody tell me the answer they put for
number 7? y = 2x
What about for 3 sheets of paper?
y= 3(2x)
We want to find a general equation for any
exponential function. What does each variable
and number in this equation represent?
y = the total number of regions
3 = the amount we started with
2 = the rate at which the amount grew
X = the number of folds
Good. In general, for exponential growth we
want to know the total amount of something (y)
with respect to how much time has passed (x)?
So what would a general equation for

Have the students describe the patterns they see

within their graphs of the data.

Have the students tell their predictions for the

number of regions for the next fold. Help students
understand why this is true and how to get that
consensus.
Help the students arrive at the formula for
exponential growth by looking at charts.

Students will critique each others graphs and

defend their own until the class reaches a
consensus.
Students will reflect on their data and graphs, find
and describe the patterns they found, and discuss
this with their classmates

Explain and debate their predictions and their

process to finding it.

exponential growth be?

y = abx
What do the variables represent?
y = total
A = the initial amount
B = the growth rate
X = time passed

TRANSITION
Hand out Would You Rather worksheet.

ELABORATION

Approximate Time: 10 min

What the Teacher Will Do

Eliciting Questions and Student Responses

What the Students Will Do

Walk around the room answering questions as

students complete the worksheet. (If short on time,
complete worksheet as a class)

What is your dependent variable? The amount of

money. What is your independent variable?
Time measured in days. So whats your x and y?
X is time, y is money. Could you create a quick
chart to help you come up with an equation?
Does one of these situations look like
exponential growth? Yes, option b. Whats your
values for a and b then? A = 1000. B = 2.
Which option represents exponential growth?
Option b
What does option a represent?
A linear function
Whats the difference between these two
phenomena?
For an exponential growth function, the y increases
at a faster and faster rate while the x increases at a
steady rate. For a linear function, the y and x both
increase at steady rates.
So what kind of function increases faster over
time?
Exponential function

Lead a class discussion of the worksheet and how

exponential growth and linear growth are different.

Complete the worksheet, asking questions when

necessary.

Participate in class discussion and explain the

difference between linear growth and exponential
growth.

TRANSITION
Teacher asks students to move their desks back into their rows and get ready for an exit ticket.

EVALUATION

Approximate Time: 5 min

What the Teacher Will Do

Eliciting Questions and Student Responses

Hands out exit ticket slips with the vampire story

from engagement on it. Have the students write the
muddiest point on the bottom of the exit ticket.
Walks around to make sure everyone is doing their
own work.

What the Students Will Do

1. Write an equation, and define variables

to describe this situation.
Y = 3(2x)
Y = total number of vampires
A = 3 vampires
B = 2 (growth rate)
X = number of hours passed
2. If the vampires terrorize the town from
midnight until daylight, how many total
vampires are there? (Assume daylight
begins at 6:00 AM)
Y = 3(2)6=192 vampires

LSU Team: Alex Boulet, Macy

Terrebonne, and Sarah Stump

Mentor Teacher: Hoffpauir

Date to be Taught: 10/17/13

School/Room: Port Allen

High/1-9

Time to be Taught: 7:25am

Grade Level: Algebra 1 (9th/10th)

Answer questions and write muddiest point on the

exit ticket to the best of their ability and hand them
in on their way out.

Lesson Topic: Exponential

Growth

DATE Requested for Pick-up: 10/15/13

DATE to be returned: N/A

TIME Requested for Pick-up: After 3pm

TIME to be returned: N/A

Items Requested

# Requested

White computer paper

7 sheets

Graph Paper

30 sheets

Name tags

30

# Returned

Collected by ______________________________________ Date_____________

Returned by ______________________________________ Date_____________