Equivalent or Not Equivalent
This lesson will introduce the idea of equivalent expressions in the context of three critical operations (division, squaring, and absolute value) where what you see in the original expressions is not the mathematical story. By comparing these values, students will identify which expressions are equivalent and which are not. They will recognize that the mathematical operations can be used to investigate whether the representations are actually equivalent. This lesson allows students to compare values of expressions that may be confused as equivalent expressions, but with subtitution can be investigated quickly using the TI-Nspire or Nspire CAS. The application of properties to perform operations with expressions allows students to understand transformations on expressions, to generalize patterns involved in algebraic calculations. This activity is appropriate for Algebra I. Aligned with SPI 3102.3.1 Aligned with SPI 3102.3.2 Aligned with SPI 3103.3.1 Aligned with SPI 3103.3.3
