Introducing Exponential Functions & COVID-19

When we broke for the Covid-19 school closure, ironically the only unit I had left to teach in Algebra 1 was exponential functions! I thought it was funny that we were closing basically for fear of exponential growth of the virus & that was what I was supposed to be teaching at the time. It just about KILLED me that I couldn't have an in-person discussion with my kids about what was happening and how their learning was happening in real life! So, I figured the least I could do was get them to try and think about how our current situation related to our learning. 

I had them watch parts of two youtube videos, one explaining exponential growth, and another one explaining exponential growth in relation to Covid-19, and then answer some probing questions on goformative. I broke up the videos below on goformative so they could make predictions & see how quick exponential growth happens. It definitely was not the same as being in the classroom, but it was better than nothing! I enjoyed reading through their responses on goformative & reading how the realized that exponential growth happens quick! 

Hopefully we will be back in the classroom next year so we can have this discussion in person! Visit my teachers pay teachers store for this activity - I have a worksheet version included for in-person, and a link for the goformative clones as well.