Videos on YouTube

I found some cool sites to teach quadratic functions and parabola so I created a powerpoint that included videos and photos as a model for students to create their own power point as homework.

I used a combination of (a) objects that are easy to spot and are shaped like parabolas such as buildings and (b) trajectories and movements in sports. 

My project was so successful because it was easy to make and something they can relate to.  Examples of their project included trajectories of a basketball being thrown, a football being kicked, a cannonball, extreme sports trajectories such as motorbikes, bikes, skateboards, snowboards.  They also showed the formation of an iceberg cave resulting from wave action as well as the handles of handbags (the shape of shoulders are parabolic) and shapes of the eye and lips (beauty projections). 

I used the sports trajectories a lot because the word problems involved a lot of balls being kicked or thrown.  It was easier to explain that solutions of parabolas meant the ball touching the horizontal ground or x-axis.  I guess what goes up must come down due to gravity.