High School Functions Assignment

High school students evaluate functions for specific values of their variable. The assignment is weakly aligned to the standard because the notation, numerical values, and computations required are more closely aligned to middle school expectations. The problems do not provide any context or require students to interpret the statements that use function notation.

Focus 
Problems #1-4 of this assignment align to eighth grade standard 8.EE.C.7 because they all involve solving linear equations in one variable (x or y). Although problems #5-8 use function notation, which is aligned with standard HSF.IF.A.2, the numbers and computation are too simple for high school. Positive and negative integers and computation with simple arithmetic and exponents are more appropriate in sixth grade. The assignment would be more closely aligned to high school if the problems involved more complex numbers (such as rational numbers) and computations (such as higher order exponents or complex fractions).

Practice Standards
The assignment does not support students’ use of any mathematical practice standards. Were the assignment more aligned to HSF.IF.A.2, students could have the opportunity to engage with Mathematical Practice Standard #2 (“Reason abstractly and quantitatively”). When students “interpret statements that use function notation in terms of a context,” they have to reason about the values and computations both within the given real-world context and also purely mathematically separate from the context.