In this unit, students expand and deepen their understanding of functions. They begin with a reminder of the definition of a function (a rule that assigns exactly one output to each input) that they previously saw in grade 8, then get familiar with function notation and use it to compare and analyze functions, write rules for functions, and solve for inputs or outputs.
Then, students explore graphs of functions to describe features such as “maximum,” “minimum,” “intercepts,” “increasing,” “decreasing,” and “average rate of change” and make connections between the graphs and real-life situations. They use situations to discuss the domain and range of a function and make sense of piecewise-defined functions. In particular, students examine the absolute value function and some basic transformations of it. Later, students explore inverses of linear functions as a way to find corresponding input values when output values are known. Throughout the unit, students have chances to mathematically model real-world situations.
Find the inverse of a linear function by solving an equation for the input variable.
Write a linear function and an inverse function to model data and solve problems.
Section Narrative
In this section, students work with inverse functions as a way to find input values that correspond to known output values. Initially, students use the idea of writing a secret code to motivate the need to find the input that produced a given output. Then, they are provided contexts in which it is efficient to use the inverse to find inputs when several different outputs are known, such as converting between currencies or temperature scales.
Sketch a graph of a function given statements in function notation.
Understand that a relationship between two quantities is a function if there is only one possible output for each input.
Write equations that represent rules using function notation.
Section Narrative
In this section, students recall the definition of a function as a rule that assigns no more than one output to every input. Then, they use function notation, like or , to describe rules from real-world situations and understand how the notation differentiates between input and output values.
Given a graph of a function, estimate or calculate the average rate of change over a specified interval.
Interpret key features of a graph—the intercepts, maximums, minimums, and intervals when the function is increasing or decreasing—in terms of a situation.
Interpret statements about two or more functions written in function notation.
Section Narrative
In this section, students analyze graphs of functions including special features, such as “maximum,” “minimum,” “intercepts,” and “average rate of change.” They make connections between descriptions of real-life situations and graphs of functions that model those situations. Then they compare situations using graphs and function notation.
In this final section, students have the opportunity to apply their thinking from throughout the unit. As this is a short section followed by an End-of-Unit Assessment, there are no section goals or checkpoint questions.
Interpret an absolute value function described in words or in function notation, and create a table of values and a graph to represent the function.
Interpret the graph of a piecewise function or its rules given in function notation, and explain the rules (orally and in writing) in terms of a situation.
Understand that the domain of a function is the set of all possible inputs and the range is the set of all possible outputs.
Section Narrative
In this section, students focus on the domain and range of various functions. The language of domain and range allows students to better understand piecewise functions for which different rules apply to different parts of the domain. In particular, students explore absolute value functions by way of a situation in which students determine how far away guesses are from an actual value.
A graph, with origin O. The horizontal axis, age, years, scale from 0 to 16 by 1s. The vertical axis, train fare, dollars, scale from 9 to 8 by 1s. A horizontal line segment, with open circle endpoints, begins at 0 comma 0 and ends at 5 comma 0. A horizontal line segment begins with a closed circle at 5 comma 5 and ends with an open circle at 11 comma 5. A line segment begins with a closed circle at 11 comma 7 and ends with an open circle at 16 comma 7.