We’ve recently launched a series of experiences to help students build algebra skills from graphing points to factoring quadratic equations!
Phenomena’s algebra series is designed to support teachers and students throughout the first year of algebra. But, these experiences aren’t just for algebra teachers! Any STEM teacher looking to help students refresh or refine core skills like graphing can sprinkle these experiences into their lessons. Because Phenomena experiences are highly visual, they can support students at a wide range of reading and language levels.
In this post, we’ll introduce you to Phenomena’s collection of algebra experiences and share how you can use them to engage students and foster joy in exploring these core concepts. Special thanks to our incredible intern, Sophia — undergraduate math and computer science student extraordinaire — who created many of these experiences. Read why Sophia loved creating these experiences in our recent blog post!
Algebra is a foundational course for so much of the math we use in our daily lives, yet students often struggle immensely to wrap their heads around graphing and variables. Research shows that negative experiences with math during the formative middle school and high school years can have a lifelong impact on a student’s enjoyment of — or aversion to — math and STEM.
Over the summer, we worked with our fantastic team of creators to develop a series of experiences to support teachers and students working with algebra concepts this school year. We’re excited to launch these experiences, along with free teacher and student Phenomena accounts, this fall as students begin to dive into critical practices like graphing that they will return to again and again throughout their STEM journey.
Our algebra series is grouped into five themes:
- Number Types
- Functions and Solving Equations
- Inequalities
- Graphing Systems of Equations
- Quadratics and Factoring
Within each of these themes are experiences that cover bite-sized topics. We take a first-principles approach to designing our experiences, minimizing the amount of background knowledge students need to understand the concept. This allows the experiences to be highly modular and flexible, easily fitting into any curriculum or sequence.
Teachers can use these experiences to:
- Preview a concept
- Investigate a phenomena
- Spark a discussion
- Address individual learning needs
- Review a concept
- Provide an extension opportunity
- …and more!
Click here to see all of the experiences in our Algebra series with standards, grade alignment and teacher guides. We’d love to hear how you use these with your students!
Share your thoughts with us at people@phenomenalearning.com.
