Investigating Growing Patterns

Investigating Growing Patterns is the featured topic in MathWire: April 2010. Tons of great stuff! Many pdf files to print for student use. Also,

"...samples of growing pattern problems created by ED 556 students at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, NJ during the Fall 2004 session. In each case, students should draw and/or describe the next couple of stages in the pattern and create an input/output table to describe the relationship between the stage and the number of blocks used. Students should be challenged to write a rule in words and more capable students should be challenged to write a general mathematical rule that would calculate the number of blocks needed for any given stage."

Links are listed for on-line practice with function machines. They also recommend several children's books to introduce functions as growing patterns: Two of Everything, One Grain of Rice, The King's Chessboard. (Also see pdf files and lesson plans available for the books.)