Course Guide - USAID Teacher Education Project

3. What is essential to know or do in class?a) Identify patterns in the immediate environment.b) Describe, represent, and extend repeating patterns.c) Introduce the concept of growing patterns and have students describe and representthem both graphically and numerically, and then extend them.d) Introduce the idea of a "pattern rule" that sets the foundation for functions in moreformal algebra later on.e) Work with Pascal's Triangle to discover patterns of numerical relationships.4. Class Activitiesa) Begin by having students identify visual patterns in the classroom environment.Then ask about other types of patterns that they perceive in their everyday life.Prompt them to go beyond visual patterns to numerical ones and intangible ones.Notice if all the examples given are repeating patterns. If anyone suggests a growthpattern, ask them to explain this idea and how it differs from repeating patterns. (If noone gives an example of a growth pattern, simply reserve discussion until youintroduce the concept later in the session.)b) Distribute the centimetre grid paper. Using small objects such as coins or cubes,create a pattern that students can translate into coloured squares on their grid paper.Ask about extending the pattern. What did they need to perceive in order to do this?The grid paper is only several centimetres wide. Does the pattern end at the end ofthe grid paper?Ask what other kind of repeating patterns are there? (E.g., the repeating decimal of1/3, the repetition of TV shows from week to week, the months of the year, etc.)c) Introduce the concept of growth patterns by drawing a simple pattern such as:Have students duplicate and extend the pattern on their grid paper.Then ask them to consider numerical growth patterns, something as simple ascounting by 2s starting from 1 (not 0). How could they represent those numbersvisually? If they need a hint, draw the first two figures in the following sequence: