About This Lesson
This lesson is the first time students will be introduced to key features of graphs of quadratic functions. This lesson draws in student engagement because the whole lesson is around a roller coaster ride. Students are shown that a roller coaster’s path, the lift hill, which is used in this lesson, can be modeled with an quadratic equation. Students use their prior knowledge of graphing to explore questions using the quadratic function. There are several opportunities throughout the lesson to support students who may need extra support or students who may need to be challenged a bit more. The lesson’s objective is discussed in the Explore Summary of the lesson. This is a critical part of the lesson as all the important key words in a quadratic function are defined. Throughout the next few lessons, these words are consistently used for students to become fluent with the vocabulary.
