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sheet. The students were encouraged to use their cell phone to take pictures of each of the four slopes to document their findings. The stations of fered the students a chance to collaborate with peers and research real - world applications that use linear equations and slopes within the first day of the 5E lesson plan model. These connections to the content align with essential components found in the PBL framework, which give students explicit and concrete examples of linear equations and slopes. In addition, Larmer et al. (2017) explains that activities such as games, puzzles and physical activities can prepare the students to work effec tively in teams. These activities gave the students opportunities to build 21st century skills such as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and enhance their technology skills, which will serve them well in the workplace and life (Larmer et al., 2010). The closing activity for day one, and the final E phase, evaluation, students performed the slope dance, in which students use their arms to mimic each type of slope as called out by the teacher. As the students danced out the door, it was exciting to hear their comments about the day ’ s activities as they walked out of the room towards their next class. While this was intended as a simple closure and formative assessment activity, the students en joyed the slope dance so much that this was used to regain the students ’ attention for days two and three. On day two, students viewed a video about their lo cal community museum that created real stained glass windows. The video was used to connect their researched on stained - glass windows to slopes. The anchor video engaged the students right away and was the first E phase, Engagement, for day 2. Once the video finished, a “ Job Offer ” intro duction letter was handed out to each student. The letter posed a problem faced by their community art museum that included background information to understand the problem. The letter explained that an existing stained - glass window was damaged during a storm due to the curved lines in the origi nal design that were structurally unsound. The stu dents were tasked to design a new stained - glass window using straight lines, which is more stable. To explore the second E, the students designed a “ blueprint ” for their own stained - glass window prototype for the community art museum. The “ Stained - Glass Equation ” worksheet, along with a sheet of graph paper and a ruler, was given to each student. The students requirements called for a

minimum of ten lines and the design had to include each type of slope (e.g. positive, negative). On the provided “ Stained - Glass Equation ” worksheet, stu dents indicated the y - intercept, slope, whether the slope was positive, negative, zero or undefined. The equation of each line is shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2. The students ’ imagination was limitless. It was captivating to see the diversity around the classroom. The students were so excited to experi ence a creative activity within a math class. More over, their creativity was so abundant that they had to be reminded to stay within the specifications of the original job offer in order to ensure their de signs met the customer ’ s requirements. By the end of the day, the students were expected to have their design on graph paper and the “ Stained - Glass Equation ” worksheet completed so on the last day, their prototype could be made for the public presentation. As the students completed their de signs and “ Stained - Glass Equation ” worksheet, they were instructed to “ trade and check. ” They swapped their design and “ Stained - Glass Equation ” worksheet with another student. They verified that the lines in the design matched the equations and requirements on the “ Stained - Glass Equation ” worksheet. Trading papers and checking each oth er ’ s work, addressed the explain E phase because the students were communicating by checking and explaining, as they verified their partners work.

Figure 1: Student in the beginning design phase

Figure 2: Student in the beginning design phase

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 46, no. 2

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