Welcome to this Lesson:
A Compare & Contrast Lesson
Linear & Exponential Growth Poetry

a poem for math class inspired by increasing numbers

This lesson was created by Northern Nevada math teacher Kellie Kareck during the NNWP's iPods Across the Curriculum Workshop.

This writing prompt inspired by

two Schoolhouse Rock songs, as well as a Coke commercial and a "Powers of Ten" video.

Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson:

This is a fun writing activity to help students see the differences between linear (arithmetic, adding) and exponential (geometric, multiplying) growth. Students explore the ideas of linear and exponential growth through old Schoolhouse Rock videos, a 70’s Coke commercial, and a podcast. After seeing the various ways these ideas are represented, students generate their own numbers and write original poems to represent them. Teachers: Click here to see the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait for this lesson is idea development; students will work on explaining the concept of mathematical growth by using real world examples to demonstrate the concepts . The support trait here is word choice; By having students write their ideas as a poem, they will need to carefully choose words that represent the concepts they are explaining.