Swan-style matching task — matching polar graphs with polar equations (Precalculus)

This was a winner. By turning a perfunctory matching activity into a group task, I created a rich mathematical investigation that achieved in one period what two days of lecture and guided practice failed to come close to.

I just grabbed these graphs and their equations from our textbook, enlarged them using Omni Graffle, and provided the markers, scissors, glue sticks, and half-sheets of poster paper.

A motivated class did the rest.

We followed with a SILENT gallery walk and a whole-class debrief. I told them to find the best ideas they could adopt from other table's posters.

It was not until I brought these into the Math Office and laid them out on the floor that several of us noticed the most original, most insightful, and deepest conceptual learning aspect of poster number 3 below, which is left as an exercise to the reader.  :)

Here's the activity file (on the Math Teacher Wiki).

And here are three of the posters the class created. Click on the photos to zoom.

Poster 1  



Poster 2

Poster 3

What do you notice?