Rate of Change Across the USA

Get ready to travel across the USA during math class! Students are told their beginning location and their final destination for the first three problems, then they get to create their own adventures for the last three problems. The map of the USA is overlaid with a coordinate plane. Students find the coordinate location of each city indicated, then find the slope of their pathway from city to city. Students could calculate the slope using rise over run, or they can use the two points of the two cities and calculate slope.

This activity can be extended by asking students to calculate the equation of the line between two cities.