Hi {{custom.firstName}},

 

Why did we invent representations like the number line? Like inequalities? The open circle? The closed circle? I know at least one of my students suspected I made up all these different mathematical ideas so I’d have a job to go to every day just for fun. But we invented these representations for a reason.

 

We invented the number line representation because, while writing one solution is easy, writing all the solutions would take forever!

Create a headache.

 

By asking students to place some of those points, enough points so that they start to feel a repetitive stress headache, you’ll likely communicate a) going point by point works . . . your early ideas work . . . they might just take a while, and b) we invented these ideas, in part, to save us all time and energy.

 

Math is power, not punishment!

Dan & the Desmos Classroom Team

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Previous Previews

• [7.6.1] — Toothpicks and Tiles — Create a headache.
• [7.6.2] — Smudged Receipts — Start with a wrong answer.
• [7.6.5] — Balancing Moves — Start with a wrong answer.