Slope Worksheets

Although the term slope is often encountered in many fields like engineering, mathematics, and more, the concept is already learned in schools, specifically in the higher grade levels. The slope is also known as the gradient of a line, a number that indicates the steepness of a line determined by the ratio of the rise over the run. To find the slope, you can give your students slope worksheets to practice on.

Slope Worksheets




What is slope? 

The gradient of a line or slope involves a lot of things in mathematics. At its most basic, the slope informs you how fast a line rises or falls on a graph. This little bit of information can help you comprehend the data behind the line, specifically in terms of the relationships between values.

If the slope yields a positive value, it means that the line rises as it moves from left to right. This is an indication of variables increasing together. For instance, if you have a line for comparing your study time against your GPA. With a positive slope, this means that the more time you study, the higher your GPA will be.

Conversely, if you have a negative slope value, this means that the line falls as it moves from left to right. This is an indication of an inverse relationship between the variables. For instance, a line for comparing the outdoor temperature against the amount of time you spend outdoors will yield a negative slope. This means that the colder it is outside, the less time you will spend there.

Finding Slope Worksheet



Types of slope 

There are three types of slopes to include in the finding slope worksheet you make for your students. Slope worksheets are very useful to help students practice the concept and gain mastery. There is also a fourth type although it’s quite controversial.

Positive Slope

This is where the line increases when you view it from left to right.

Negative Slope

This is where the line decreases when you view it from left to right.

Zero Slope

This is where the line is neither decreasing nor increasing when you view it from left to right and vice-versa. Therefore, a horizontal line has a zero slope.

Infinite or Unidentified Slope

This line doesn’t move to the left nor does it move to the right. The most typical example of this type of slope is a vertical line. However, most people don’t consider this as a type of slope. Because it’s parallel to the y-axis, it, therefore, won’t move along the x-axis.

A vertical line has this type of slope as it doesn’t really go up or down and, therefore, doesn’t have steepness. This is also called the infinite slope because it has a denominator of zero and as such, the ratio of rise over run yields an infinite value.

Slope Practice Worksheet



Activities for teaching slope 

One of the most fundamental topics taught to students in the middle grades is the concept of slopes. There should be more focus on learning about slopes because if your students lag behind in studying it, they will have to do a lot of catching up for a long time.

Your students can learn how to find slopes through a finding slope from a graph worksheet, slope formula worksheet, finding slope from two points worksheet, slope practice worksheet, and finding slope of a line worksheet. When you give these worksheets to your students, they will gain mastery in the concept.

While slope worksheets are very effective for practicing the concept, there are other activities you can use to teach slope. Here are some simple activities to practice identifying slopes outside of using finding slope worksheets:

 Create a “slope dude”

If you want to get your students interested, this is one of the best activities. With this, they can easily remember the four types of slopes. Start this activity by drawing a face with different types of slopes.

Your students can draw these on their notebooks too. Then explain each of the types to them. Aside from being an easy way to remember the slopes, it also helps them retain the ideas of undefined and zero slopes. This is particularly effective for younger learners compared to finding slope from a graph worksheets, slope formula worksheets, and other worksheets that might seem too boring for them.

Knockout game to compare slopes

Knockout games are a lot of fun and you would usually play them with the entire class. You can present this using an overhead projector allowing your students to choose the questions.

You can give them finding slope from two points worksheets or slope practice worksheets to work on and use for the competition. Like many interactive games, your students will be more than willing to participate because of all the fun things that this type of game has to offer.

Slope name drawing activity

To complete this slope drawing game, you would ask your students to draw their names using lines that can have any of the types of slope. You can even allow them to color-code the lines, where each type of slope will have its own color.

This works well with younger students because they love to draw and because there seems to be an obsession with writing their names at this age. Moreover, this exercise provides them a chance to practice with the key terms used when dealing with slopes.

Watching a Shmoop video

This is a short video you can find online that explains the basic concepts of slopes in a quirky but fun way. It generally focuses on the meaning of a slope and its importance in mathematics. Your students will get entertained with the different examples showcased in the video.

Slope Worksheets

You can either make your own slope worksheets if you have the time or you can just download finding slope of a line worksheets for your students. There are so many of these worksheets to choose from. These worksheets can reinforce the concepts the students already learned about slopes.

Matching slope puzzles

This game is both entertaining and simple. Here, you will ask your students to match varying representations with a single slope. The game is a lot more engaging than practicing on worksheets. Furthermore, you can pair up your students to work on the activity to make it more fun.