Arithmetic Sequences and Series Homework Help Resources

In this activity, students use formulas to find the differences of the consecutive terms of a sequence, plot a scatter plot, and observe that sequences with common differences (arithmetic sequences) have scatter plots whose points form a straight line. They then use a spreadsheet to write an explicit formula to display the first n terms of a sequence and find the sum of the first n terms of the related series, using a spreadsheet and sigma notation.

Students will use the Spreadsheet application to generate recursive sequences and then examine the values. They will also write recursive sequence formulas for given sequences.

In this activity, students will use a calculator page to create an arithmetic sequence. Through this they will learn some of the vocabulary of sequences. Then students will then use slider functionality to explore the effect of each variable in the formula of the nth term of an arithmetic sequence. Students will learn how to graph a sequence using a scatter plot.