Our latest math project had revolved around the concept of polynomials, specifically like terms. Polynomials are equations with two or more terms that are separated by plus and minus symbols. For those of you who aren’t aware, the terms of an equation are the different sections of algebraic expression that are divided by symbols of addition or subtraction. An equation such as 13b only possess on term, therefore it is called a monomial. An equation like 13b+72c has two terms, and is therefore called a binomial. One with three terms is a trinomial, and anything with four or more terms is simply just called a polynomial.
We learned a ton about the different parts of a polynomial equation. There’s the degree which is the highest power or variable in the equation, exponents which are the amount a of times a number is multiplied by itself, and the coefficient which is the number that is used to multiply the variable. Some other words that often come up when talking about polynomials are constants, the number or numbers that is on its own, has a constant value, and does not have a variable beside it. These were just some of the things we had to learn before starting our actual project. The last thing, and possibly one of the most important things we learnt about were like terms and how to combine them. Like terms are terms in an equation that have the same type of variable and can be grouped together to simplify the equation.
Using our knowledge of like terms and polynomials we had to come up with a driving question that we would base our project around.
Me and my partner Owen, came up with a driving question of How are polynomials and like terms used in the workforce. After spending many classes researching and getting information, we narrowed it down to three jobs in particular that used these se jobs were forestry, Financing, and Engineering. We took all of the information that we found and put it into a keynote. I had spent a lot of time editing and formatting this keynote to be as close to perfection as it could possibly be. In the keynote, we talked not only about how these jobs used polynomials and like terms, but also about the math concepts themselves, some polynomial language, how to combine like terms, and why they’re important.
Overall, I think that this project was a success. It helped me to better understanding the concept of polynomials as well as like terms in a way that I could more easily remember the information. It also gave me some insight into why we learn these concepts in the first place, and where we might use them later in life. Although some small changes still need to be made in order to perfect the keynote, the project itself was a fun learning experience and was an was in my opinion successful.
