Hello blog readers,

During the past month in math class we have been learning about polynomials and like terms. In this post I will tell you about the project we had to do and the math in it.

Before I tell you about the project let me tell you what polynomials and like terms are. Polynomials are mathematic expressions that have more than two algebraic terms consisting of variables and coefficients. They also only includes addition, subtraction, and multiplication.

Like terms are a group of terms that are alike, but the coefficient can be different. The coefficient is the number in the term. Here you can see examples of like terms.

This project was completely different than what our class is used to. Our math teacher Mr.Gross gave us the chance to design our own math project. This project did have some guide lines and it had to include like terms and polynomials but other than that it was a project made by us. The project did have to be personalized and presented in front of the class with our partner. The partner we had for this project was the person we were sitting with so I did my math project with Kiefer.

Kiefer and I immediately got to work and began to think of a good inquiry question. After a while of thinking we agreed that our question should be “How can polynomials and like terms help us in our future?”

To find the answer to our question we decided to interview our parents and see what they could tell us. My dads interview was mostly about how he used math for calculating the price of everything. From this interview we learned that in the future we can use like terms a lot for pricing. Adding the price of different materials and figuring out a selling price uses like terms. Kiefer’s dads interview was mostly about how he used polynomials in his work place. He used polynomials to figure out the spacing for pieces of wood.

We took the information that we learned and our interviews and made it into a little video for the project. This video is very informative and if you missed anything from this post this video will tell you everything in simple terminology. Here is the video.

In the end I learned a lot from this project. It was a fun experiment getting to a make our own project. I also fully understand all the math concepts. I think in plp having projects like this can show our learning as a student. We also used competency in this project. For the project we used thinking competency and communication competency. We used thinking competency by generating ideas and developing them into the final product. We used community competency by collaborating, connecting, and presenting our final product. Now I’m ready for the last few weeks of school till Summer.