Part 1
I believe the most important thing we learned this unit was how to divide polynomials, either though long division or synthetic division. This is a very vital skill because there are many tasks that require using it, such as factoring. If you have one root, then you can find the next lowest degree factor and that may be enough to find all the roots.
Synthetic division will be especially helpful, as it is an absurdly quick and easy way to find quotients with 1 co-efficient divisors. That will allow for easier factoring of quadratic and cubic polynomials, as well as assist in higher degree functions.
Mrs. Parker assigned a day dedicated to explaining how synthetic division worked, as it was not in our workbook but she felt it was important anyways. It made us understand how it worked, and was a great way of teaching us that new concept.
Part 2 – Cartoon Project
This unit we had a Cartoon Project where we were tasked to explain some concepts about polynomials in a cartoon format. We already understood the material in this unit, but that was not the goal of this project; we now were supposed to present that knowledge in an easy-to-understand format. The hardest part of this project was actually focusing on it, as it was assigned during our grade level project. I found it very difficult to prioritize working on it while we had all the other work looming over us. While this project never really demanded much time, I know I could have done better given more effort. On most projects I go all in and cover as many points as possible but it felt impossible for this one.
Nonetheless, our final result did not look bad. Our presentation looked decent, and thanks to a teammate, we had nice little characters to base our cartoon around. Our slideshow’s theme was fairly simple but pleasant. I probably would have executed a makeover given more time but I didn’t.
Next time I need be able to focus more on this project. In an ideal situation I would be assigned one project at a time, but given that nobody ever gets it all their way, I will need to be able to multitask between multiple projects at once. While in this situation the Grade Level Project was definitely more important, I will need to learn how to prioritize certain elements of two, maybe even three tasks at the same time.