Conic Card Follow-Up

Recently, I wrote about my affection for Cindy Johnson's Conic Cards. I thought I would mention, like anything else stolen borrowed, I have added a few things to make it my own.

(This probably won't make any sense unless you have read that post.)

1.  Extra time:  I have found that following Cindy's outline, I ended up with 5-10 minutes left at the end of my 50 minute class periods. So I would put up an equation for whatever conic(s) they had learned so far and ask students to discuss with their partners to identify the vertex, center, major/minor axis, or whatever. Then I would randomly pick a color and have the students who worked with that color of cards that day answer the question. Since everyone knows they may be called on, they all talk to their partner and make sure they know the answer.

2.  Giving directions:  I found that it was really hard to give directions while students had cards in their hands. I didn't feel like they were listening because of all the sorting. Then again, I WANT them to be sorting. Instead of fighting it, I wrote out some directions (per Cindy's outline) so that they could go through at their own pace. I stopped them at a few points to write something down, but mostly they were able to figure things out on their own. Here are those sheets:

Parabolas (practice at the end is Cindy's)
Circles (practice at the end is Cindy's)
Ellipses (I combined Day 3 and Day 4 from Cindy's outline)
Sketch Parabolas, Circles, Ellipses
Hyperbolas

3.  Green Globs:  This is some software our school has purchased, and we like it. For conics, students type an equation to try to match a graph that is given. If they are correct, they advance to the next level. If not, they can see the graph of their incorrect guess so that they can figure out what adjustments to make. Games for linear equations are also included.