California Middle School Mathematics Concepts and Skills: Course 2

#2011 Voyage of the Ventana Part 1 - The ocean has a tremendous influence on all life on Earth, yet we know relatively little about it. One reason is that the high pressure of the ocean’s depths creates an environment that is extremely inhospitable to humans.

#2012 Voyage of the Ventana Part 2 - The undersea exploration vehicle Ventana is fully equipped to be the eyes, ears and hands of oceanographers who wish to explore the deep ocean.

Chapter Engagement

Show Futures Channel Movies #2011 and #2012, then arrange students in pairs or small groups and have them complete the activity described in Movie Guide #7. After discussing the solution, review the concepts of function (a relationship between variables in which knowing the value of one variable allows you to predict the value of the other), and linear function (a relationship between variables which looks like a straight line when plotted in a Cartesian coordinate system).

Explain that one finds linear functions in many, many different fields and that in this chapter students are going to learn more about how to work with such functions.