A Regression Lab for AP Precalculus

Starburst Grab

 I'm teaching AP Precalculus this year. Although I am loving the course developed by the College Board and the thinking it is requiring of my students, I'm a little overwhelmed with all of the prep. It doesn't help that I am also teaching AP Environmental Science for the first time. 

Speedy Squares

Anyway, I spend plenty of time looking through posts from the AP Precalculus teachers Facebook group. One of the posts talked about regression labs that a teacher was doing when they got to topic 2.6. None of these regression labs are my creations, but I put them all together into a form that I could use with my students that guided their thinking, hopefully into deeper understanding. The original activities can be found on Math Equals Love and Stats Medic.

Measured Race Station

I modified Starburst grab so that it would be a cubic regression, although it wasn't a fabulous fit. Then we had two linear and one quadratic regression. 

The labs were a big hit with students. One change I'm planning for next year is to have students answer the questions about each station at the same time that they are making their graph and finding the regression equation and residuals. 

Here's the document that I put together that includes both the handouts that I gave to each student as well as the directions that I placed at each station.