The mathematical purpose of this lesson is to support students in making sense of language used to describe situations that can be modeled with inequalities. It also gives students an opportunity to reason abstractly and quantitatively as they interpret solutions of inequalities in terms of the situations they describe (MP2). Students practice representing solutions to inequalities using multiple representations (verbally, on the number line, and symbolically). This builds on the work students did in grade 7, when they represented situations and solved problems using inequalities.

This work prepares students for the associated Algebra 1 lesson in which they interpret and solve more complex inequalities in terms of the situations. Students look for and make use of structures (MP7) as they recognize the connection between inequalities, situations, and graphs of inequalities.