California Middle School Mathematics Concepts and Skills: Course 2

#3005 Eyes on the Universe: Looking Into Time - Astronomers think of telescopes as “bigger eyes” that allow them to look, not only deep into space, but back into time.

#3007 Eyes on the Universe: Telescope Mirrors—Building a large telescope mirror is a complex engineering task.

Chapter Engagement

Draw a shallow parabola on the board (opening upwards), and ask students if they have ever seen anything with that kind of a shape. Elicit or present the fact that satellite dishes and microwave dishes have this shape. Tell students that the shape is called a parabola, and that you are going to show them one of the more fascinating uses of this shape. Then have them watch Futures Channel Movies #3005 and #3007.

Explain to students that parabolic curves can be described in algebra by a particular type of function called a quadratic function, and that in this chapter they are going to learn all about quadratic functions.