1. Read the following to the students: "The CyberSquad is invited to join Hacker's Game Show 'Find Those Gleamers.' Gleamers are firefly-like red bugs that give off energy measured in numbers of 'power glows.' The kids must find enough gleamers to power Hacker's ship, 'The Grim Wreaker.' The problems are: a) they do not know how many gleamers they need, and b) they do not know how many power glows are produced by each gleamer. With 3 gleamers (in 3 of the 5 slots), they produce 18 power glows. Watch how they use algebra to solve the problem."

2. Tell the students that they will watch a video in which the CyberSquad tries to solve this problem.

3. Show the Find Those Gleamers QuickTime Video .

4. Distribute the Handout: Gleamers and Glows .

5. Ask the students to work the handout.

the term variable has two related meanings as an unknown and as a quantity that varies. In this episode, b is an unknown in that the Kids know only that 3 gleamers produce 18 power glows. However, they write the equation as 3 * b = 18 and then solve for b = 6. They also find other pairs of values that make this statement true. However, mathematically, after solving for b, we would typically use the equation as 6x = y as a function in which the outcome (y = number of power glows) is a function of the input (x = the number of gleamers). In this alternative equation, 6 is the number of power glows per gleamer (or b in the previous approach). In the second approach, x and y function as variables in the sense of quantities that vary.

Assessment: Level A (proficiency): Students are asked to figure out how many gleamers are needed for a certain power level. A second problem asks the same question but asks for gleamers that produce a different level of power glows per gleamer. The students are asked to express these problems with algebraic equations. 

Assessment: Level B (above proficiency): Students are asked to solve several algebraic expressions.