Do you need an engaging activity to help your students solve quadratic equations? Keep reading!
Many curricula split the study of solving quadratics into four parts: factoring, completing the square, Quadratic Formula, and graphing. These resources combine these four tiers of learning into one compelling mystery activity!
Factoring
There are two options for starting off your mysterious journey: by factoring with a=1 or with a≠1. In both mystery bundles, this first activity is a scavenger hunt which you can customize with your own title, suspects, weapons, and location. Basically, you get to design your own mystery!
I think scavenger hunts are a GREAT way to get your students engaged in learning and to keep them focused. (You can read more of my thoughts on this here.) These activities are no exception. Each set has 20 equations which, when factored, will eliminate a suspect, a weapon, or a location. When the students has finished, they will have solved the first part of this mystery!
Completing the Square
Whichever factoring route you take, your second stop in this mystery series is The Case of the Locked Briefcase. In this activity, whoever your villain was from the first mystery has a briefcase, and we need to decipher the code to unlock it!
Students solve a series of quadratic equations to determine word clues that they will use to fill in the blanks. When they are finished, they will have sentences they will use to complete a logic puzzle and determine the briefcase’s combination.
Quadratic Formula
No study of quadratics would be complete without the Quadratic Formula, and no mystery would be complete without a hidden message!
In this activity, as students solve each equation, they will discover a letter that is assigned to each question number. They will use these letters to discover a message of what Ray found in the briefcase.
I love that this activity gives answers in both exact fractional/radical form as well as in decimal equivalents so you can differentiate for the different learning levels of your students!
Graphing
I don’t know about you, but I always save graphing for the last method because once they learn it, students may not attempt to use the other methods we’ve discussed!
In this final activity, students match equations with their graphs to discover where the villain is hiding. Some of these graphs look pretty similar, so this is excellent practice for the students to pay close attention to their zeros and intercepts.
Digital!
And did I mention all of these activities can be used in a digital format as well? All of the downloads include a link to a Google Slides activity that matches the worksheet!
