Graphing Polynomials - Partner Activity

This is an engaging and collaborative partner activity for sketching graphs of polynomials. There are eight sections as in each section the problems of the partners are similar (problem A1 is similar to problem B1, problem A2 is similar to problem B2, etc). Partners are asked to sketch the graph of each polynomial function given and compare the graphs of each pair corresponding polynomials. They will find out that the shapes of the graphs A1 and B1 are similar, so are the shapes of the graphs A2 and B2 and so on. Partners can be given directions also to factor and compare the factored forms of each two corresponding polynomials and make conclusions. Thus they will verify that the sign of the leading coefficient, the number and multiplicity of the zeros of polynomials are determining for the shape of their graphs.

There are provided coordinates grids where each axis are labeled using an appropriate scale as dictated by the problem so the sketching to become easier.