UNIT 1

Final Assessment

Teacher: Lucila Amigo

4th year
A) BIRTHDAY POLYNOMIAL PROJECT
1. Write, IN ORDER, the digits of the month (1 or 2 digits), day (1 or 2 digits), and year (4 digits) of your birthday.
For example, April 2, 1976 could be “421976” or “4021976”. Use must use 6, 7 or 8 digits.

2. Create a polynomial using your digits, in order. Again, for example, my polynomial could be:

(Notice in the second example, the 0 eliminated the 5th degree term. If your birth year is 2000, you may change
your constant term to your favorite number, instead of 0).

3. Experiment with the shape of your birthday polynomial by changing the signs (+/-) of various terms in Geogebra.
Try to create a polynomial function with an interesting shape and some turning points. Be creative! You’re trying to
express yourself in this graph!
A) BIRTHDAY POLYNOMIAL PROJECT
4. Analyze your polynomial by finding these characteristics:

a. Roots (x-intercepts)

b. End behavior

c. Y-intercept

d. Domain and Range

e. Relative minimums and maximums

f. Positive and negative intervals

g. Increasing and decreasing intervals

B) THE FARM PROJECT
Farmer Bob is planting a garden this spring. He wants to plant squash,
pumpkins, corn, beans, and potatoes. His plan for the field layout in
feet is shown in the figure below. Use the figure and your knowledge of
polynomials, perimeter, and area to solve the following:
B) THE FARM PROJECT
1. Write an expression that represents the length of the south side of the field.

2. Simplify the polynomial expression that represents the south side of the field.

3. Write a polynomial expression that represents the perimeter of the pumpkin field.

4. Simplify the polynomial expression that represents the perimeter of the pumpkin field. State one reason why the
perimeter would be useful to Farmer Bob.

5. Write a polynomial expression that represents the area of the potato field.

6. Simplify the polynomial expression that represents the area of the potato field. State one reason why the
calculated area would be useful to Farmer Bob.

7. Write and simplify the polynomial expression that represents the area of the bean field if x = 3 and y = 7. What
unit would the area of Bob’s bean field have?
B) THE FARM PROJECT
8. The farmer would like his bean plants to grow to a height of (x + 3). Write a polynomial expression to find the
volume of the bean plants if they reach a height of (x + 3).

9. Simplify the polynomial expression that represents the volume of the bean plants if they reach a height of (x + 3)
feet.

10. Farmer Bob would like to plant three additional fields of produce. Using your graphing calculator, find the
dimensions of each field given the area.

a. The area of the strawberry field is 16x² + 4x.

b. The area of the cucumber field is x² – 4x – 21.

c. The area of the tomato field is x² – 36.

B) THE FARM PROJECT
11. Farmer Bob realized he forgot to include a zucchini field into his field layout. He plans to use half the length and
half the width of the squash field in order to plant zucchini. Write a polynomial expression that represents the area
of the new zucchini field.

12. Simplify the polynomial expression that represents the area of the newly added zucchini field.

13. Extra Credit: Write and simplify polynomial expressions that represent the perimeter and area of the cornfield.
C) ROLLER COASTER PROJECT
Fred, Elena, Michael, and Diane enjoy roller Coasters. Whenever a new roller Coaster
opens near their town, they try to be among the first to ride. One Saturday, the four
friends decide to ride a new coaster. While waiting in line, Fred notices that part of this
coaster resembles the graph of a polynomial function that they have been studying in their
Math class.

1. The brochure for the coaster says that, for the first 10 seconds of the ride, the height of
the coaster can be determined by

where t is the time in seconds and h is the height in feet. Classify this polynomial by degree
and by number of terms.

2. Graph the polynomial function in Geogebra.

3. Find the height of the coaster at t = 0 seconds. Explain why this answer makes sense.
C) ROLLER COASTER PROJECT
4. Find the height of the coaster 9 seconds after the ride begins.
Explain how you found the answer.

5. Evaluate h(60). Does this answer make sense? Identify practical

(valid real life) domain of the ride for this model. CLEARLY
EXPLAIN your reasoning. (Hint.: Mt. Everest is 29,028 feet tall.)

7. Identify increasing and decreasing intervals.

8. Use your graphing calculator to approximate relative maxima

and minima of this function. Round your answers to three
decimal places.

9. Clearly describe the end behavior of this function and the

reason for this behavior.

10. Locate all real zeros of this function. Clearly interpret the
real-world meaning of these zeros.
 Further instructions:
You will have to answer questions and solve problems involving polynomial functions presented in real life
scenarios. Through your work, you need to demonstrate clear and in depth understanding of the concepts such
as sketching and analyzing graphs of polynomial functions, dividing polynomials, determining zeros of a
polynomial function, determining polynomial function behavior, etc.

Your project will be assessed based on the following general criteria:

● your answers will be graded on correctness and accuracy.
● provide all answers in a full sentence form. Make sure you clearly justify your answers where required.
● appearance of the work - presentation

Provide all your working for each question, showing your final result clearly.