Lesson Design      

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      In a project-based instruction lesson designed for Algebra I, students are to create a business model for a landing system they construct by applying their knowledge of linear functions. The lesson addresses four TEKS in which the students work on mastering throughout the lesson. The planning process of this lesson began with a concept map of the TEKS involved and what important information should be included in the lesson design. By identifying the common vocabulary and concepts assessed by each of the relevant TEKS, connections were formed to ultimately bring out examples, including cross-curricular problems, for students to explore within the topic. The map also laid out the prior knowledge necessary for student understanding of the assessed TEKS.

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     After looking at different problems on past STAAR tests related to the application of linear functions, I knew I wanted to develop a lesson that included a mixture of math, engineering, and business approaches to linear functions. To increase student engagement within the lesson, a current and trending topic was chosen as the theme for the lesson: NASA’s Moon to Mars mission. Through different activities in the lesson, students are to construct a landing system, keep track of the expenses, and determine a market price to sell their product to NASA. The resulting linear graph would track how much money their company has as they sell units of their landing system. A lesson overview was created to highlight key elements of the different steps of the lesson.

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     After each day of the lesson, students could evaluate their product and their model to answer the driving question, “How can you make your product cost-efficient?” This gives students the opportunity to reflect on the different factors that affect their model such as sales price, cost to build, and materials used. Furthermore, at the end of Day 2, students are given a worksheet to complete as homework. Upon assessing students’ performance on these worksheets, the teacher could gauge what misconceptions are still occurring in the classroom while also evaluating how much students have grasped from the math concepts presented throughout this lesson.

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      The last day is dedicated to letting students finish building their model and begin presenting their final product with their peers and any invited guests including those from business and engineering fields. The lesson can be adapted to fit in anywhere between a 3-day period to a 10-day unit plan*. 

    

     The resources used for this lesson were derived from example STAAR test questions that focused on business and linear functions as seen in the included worksheet. Research and historical context was gathered from the NASA website and information for the Moon to Mars initiative. Since both sources tied directly into the theme of this lesson and are known to be credible, up-to-date sources, they were largely used to help develop this lesson plan.