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Seeking Shelter

What factors influence homelessness in a city?

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Seeking Shelter

What factors influence homelessness in a city?

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Seeking Shelter - Teacher Guide.pdf
Seeking Shelter - Student Handout (Los Angeles).pdf
Seeking Shelter - Student Handout (New York).pdf
Seeking Shelter - Student Handout (Seattle).pdf
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What factors influence homelessness in a city? Local leaders want to recruit high-paying jobs and to ensure their communities remain affordable to the people living there, and these goals can present a challenge.

In this lesson, students interpret linear equations and trend lines to describe how median income, average rent, and rates of homelessness have changed in the past two decades in various U.S. cities and discuss what they can do to aid people experiencing homelessness in their communities.

REAL WORLD TAKEAWAYS

  • In cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle, average incomes have risen over time. As incomes have risen, so have rents.
  • As rents rise, some people are no longer able to afford their homes and become homeless.
  • Local leaders face a challenge in recruiting high-paying jobs while ensuring their areas remain affordable to the less well-off.

MATH OBJECTIVES

  • Describe a line-of-best fit as a line which is drawn through data points to show a long-term trend
  • Interpret a linear equation in a real-world context
Appropriate most times as students are developing conceptual understanding.
Grade 8
Writing Linear Equations
Grade 8
Writing Linear Equations
Content Standards 8.F.1 Understand that a function is a rule that assigns to each input exactly one output. The graph of a function is the set of ordered pairs consisting of an input and the corresponding output. 8.F.2 Compare properties of two functions each represented in a different way (algebraically, graphically, numerically in tables, or by verbal descriptions). For example, given a linear function represented by a table of values and a linear function represented by an algebraic expression, determine which function has the greater rate of change. 8.F.4 Construct a function to model a linear relationship between two quantities. Determine the rate of change and initial value of the function from a description of a relationship or from two (x, y) values, including reading these from a table or from a graph. Interpret the rate of change and initial value of a linear function in terms of the situation it models, and in terms of its graph or a table of values. 8.F.5 Describe qualitatively the functional relationship between two quantities by analyzing a graph (e.g., where the function is increasing or decreasing, linear or nonlinear). Sketch a graph that exhibits the qualitative features of a function that has been described verbally.
Mathematical Practices MP.2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively. MP.3 Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. MP.6 Attend to precision. MP.7 Look for and make use of structure.

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