HUMAN ALGEBRAIC EXPRESSION - SORTING LIKE TERMS TO SIMPLIFY

In this activity each student was given a note card. Cards were pre-labeled (by me) with different terms, either an x, y, xy, y3, x3, m, or w. Students were instructed to add a Coefficient to their terms if they did not have a constant.

 

After we recorded their very long expression on the board students began to brainstorm on ways to shorten or simplify the long expression. They determined that the Commutative Property of Addition would allow them to change the order of the terms so they could group the Like Terms together.

Afterwards students wrote the following notes from the board.