Linear Function Star Chain

I've posted about this activity before, but I wanted to share a new Star Chain I made this week to review linear functions.  My students really struggled on a quiz last week when I mixed up the problem types.  I asked students to find slope, x-intercepts, y-intercepts , and zeros from all different types of situations.  They had been doing great when we studied each topic by itself, but once I mixed them all up on a quiz, many of them couldn't seem to remember what to do when.  They were finding rise over run when all I asked for was the x-intercept, or when asked to find a zero, they would find the y-intercept. 

I can't say that I blame them.  They've got a lot of brand new vocabulary floating around in their sweet little heads and they haven't yet made all the connections necessary to differentiate between all the critical elements of a line.

After doing a little reteach yesterday, I decided to pull out one of my older activities that I use when I need something that is completed individually and is self-checking.  The students seemed to enjoy making these star chains once they got the hang of how it worked.  They are very easy to make if you use my template.  All you need is twelve problems and 12 unique answers.  Be sure and give your star chain a trial run and make sure it doesn't loop back on itself.  I learned that lesson the hard way.
I would also allow at least 30 minutes to do this activity or  a little more if your students are slow at cutting things out.

You can click here to see the original post which explains how the activity works

Here is the  Linear Function Star Chain  I used today. It contains a mix of problems which require students to find slope, intercepts, and zeros from a variety of representations.