Quadratic Transformations Discovery Lesson - Graphing Quadratics in Vertex Form

This inquiry resource for quadratics will introduce students to parabolas, the parent function, shifts to the graph, vertex form, and standard form. The discovery stations, lessons, and practice problems give an in depth study of vertex form.

This lesson pack is designed to making planning your unit easy. Everything is included to help you facilitate the learning as students progress through the activities.

The resource includes the following 7 parts:

• Intro: Students graph the quadratic parent function and learn important terms.
• Observations Stations: Students visit 7 stations to notice, wonder, and predict shifts to the quadratic graph as a result of changes to the equation.
• Testing Predictions: Students test the predictions they made in the previous part by creating tables of values and graphing.
• Challenge: Students use what they learned in the previous parts to graph challenging quadratic equations in vertex form.
• Forms of Quadratics: Students explore the benefits of vertex form and standard form.
• Finding Zeros in Vertex Form: Students substitute 0 for y to identify the zeros.
• Vertex Form Practice: Students practice everything they have learned about quadratics in an assortment of graphing and real world problems.

Many of the parts work great for partners!

The discovery format of the lessons included will help your students to truly understand how quadratic equations work. The majority of the graphing is done by hand. Students will gain confidence in their own abilities to graph quadratics instead of relying on a calculator.

The focus of this pack of lessons is vertex form. The lessons could be used after standard form is taught, but I recommend starting with these lessons and introducing vertex form first!