Nick Hershman, 2008 - 2009 School Year, mrhershman@gmail.

com
Unit: Systems of Equations

Overview
Having taught Systems of Equations I think it’s important for students to be introduced to them in the
context of a problem like.
Four stickers and three ribbons cost $5. Seven stickers and nine ribbons cost $13.10. How
much do stickers and ribbons each cost?

Essential Skills
• Know how to write a system of equations to solve a word problem
• Solve systems of equations by graphing
• Solve systems of equations by substitution
• Solve systems of equations by combination
• Solve systems of inequalities by graphing

Pre-Requisite Skills
Students will need to have a general foundation in linear equations to be good at solving systems of equations
• Graph lines in slope-interept form y = mx + b
• Convert between standard for and slope-intercept form
3x + 5y = 10 (1)
5y = 10 − 3x (2)
3
y =2− x (3)
5
• Graph equations in standard form
• Write equations for clues in a word problem.
• Solve equations involving the distributive property. 3x − 4(x − 15) = 30

Skill List
The following skills will be taught in this unit
1. Determine if a point is a solution to a system of equations (algebraically)
2. Solve a system of equations by graphing
3. Solve a system of equations by elimination
4. Solve a system of equations by substitution
5. Identify and solve a typical system of equations word problem
6. Determine how many solutions a system of equations has (graphically)
7. Determine how many solutions a system of equations has (algebraically)
8. Determine if a point is a solution to a system of inequalities
9. Graph a system of inequalities (indicate the solution region)
10. Given the graph of a system of inequalities, write the system
Unit Skill Sequence
Many of the situations that can be solved using the methods of solving systems of equations are situations that
lend themselves to a brute force method, students should be able to transition between multiple strategies
for solving the same problem. They should be well aware of the strategies and use them interchangeably
depending on the given information.
1. Diagnostic: Pre-Requisites and Unit Skills ws-diagnostic.pdf
2. Lesson Plan: Launching the Unit with the Tortoise and Hare Problem plan-unitlaunch.pdf
3. Activity: Graphing systems of equations and testing solutions ws-graphingintro.pdf
4. Activity: Solving systems of equations by elimination ws-elimination.pdf
5. Activity: Solving Systems of equations by substitution ws-substitution.pdf