Learning goals: Teacher Facing Calculate rates of change of functions given graphs, equations, or tables. Use rates of change and show that, for any equal intervals of the independent variable, an exponential function always increases or decreases by an equal factor. Use rates of change to show that, for any equal intervals of the independent variable, a linear function always changes by an equal difference. Full lesson plan (warm-up, activities, synthesis, cool-down prompt) from Alg1.5 Introduction to Exponential Functions, Algebra 1.