Many students struggle to transition from procedural algebra to structural algebra and find it challenging to produce the “nth” term in a linear change pattern. Pattern blocks plant the seeds of growth patterns that encourage students to make conjectures about rates of change and y-intercepts in linear functions. By the end of this session, participants will be able to how to use pattern blocks to help students understand the relationships between concrete, visual, verbal, symbolic, and contextual representations of y=mx+b.
