In a recent post, I responded to a request for a kinesthetic introduction to Pascal’s Triangle. Here is a kinesthetic activity to introduce or review graphing:
Ask students to line up along the line at the middle of a basketball court, which will be the x-axis. The middle student will be 0, and students on the right will be 1, 2, 3, etc., while students on the left will be -1, -2, -3, etc. Then, say
“y = 3, everyone takes 3 steps forward”
“Go back to the x-axis”
“y = -2, everyone takes 2 steps backward”
“Go back to the x-axis”
These initial two maneuvers should help students coordinate with their neighbors, so that they end up on a line parallel to the x-axis with each.
Now say
“y = 2x, everyone step 2 times your number — forward or back, depending on whether 2 times your number is positive or negative!”
Presumably, students will be standing on the graph of y = 2x.
And so on, with different functions.
–Henri
Henri's Math Education Blog 