Modeling Electrodialytic Desalination

This lesson series asks students to use a simulation applet for electrodialytic desalination to explore the functional relationships between various engineering design parameters and output measures of practical interest. While the engineering setting is used to motivate and expose students to facets of engineering design, the mathematical focus is on using multiple representations to analyze and model, and on interpreting mathematical features in context. While the lesson materials provided here are designed for Algebra 1, with different degrees of scaffolding and different expectations for sophistication of analysis, these lessons could be adapted for any of a broad range of math classes which include the study of functions and modeling.