13

Activity 4

Stadium Walls

Students investigate real-life situations and find patterns by making concrete representations and making T-charts. Students then describe and generalize these patterns verbally, symbolically, and graphically.

Patterns and Relations

♦patterning

♦graphing

♦evaluating expressions

♦equivalent math expressions

Materials

♦graph paper

♦toothpicks

♦TI-73 •

Setup

Present the following problem to students.

An engineer designs the skeleton for the walls of a new stadium from equal lengths of steel beams that are placed in a rectangular pattern as shown below. The engineer knows that one wall has to have a length of 57. How many steel beams are needed for this wall?

length 1

length 2

length 3

(This view is from the front.)

The length of each wall is measured by the number of beams along the bottom of the wall.

© 1998 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED