Lesson Plan: Estimating Rates of Change and Areas Under Graphs
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to estimate the rates of change for points on a graph and estimate specified areas under graphs.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- draw and interpret time graphs—in particular, distance–time and speed–time graphs,
- estimate the instantaneous rate of change of a function of time graphically and explain its meaning in a real context (e.g., it is the velocity for and the acceleration for ),
- estimate the area under the graph of a function of time and explain its meaning in a real context (e.g., it is the distance traveled for ).
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- finding the slope of a line.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- integrals.