Applying the Properities of Functions to Real Life Data

I had the task of teaching maximum, minimum, increasing, decreasing, domain, and range. Instead of using the generic graphs that the book gives I wanted to find applicable data. I wanted to find data that the students could relate and connect to. So I researched a popular topic: teenage pregnancy rates. I ended up at the Virginia State homepage. I found graph and article addressing teenage pregnancy trends across the different regions of Virginia. Surprisingly, the tidewater area was the second highest area for teenage pregnancy. We spent about 10 minutes connecting with the text and the graphs. I asked, "At what year was the rate at a maximum?" I then asked, "At what year was the rate at a minimum?". Afterwards, I asked them to look at the graph and tell me at what years there was an increase/or decrease in teenage pregnancy. I then asked, "Where do the years of the data begin and where do they end?" I then told them that that is called finding the domain of the graph. This activity made it a lot easier for students to apply what they had learned to any graph they would see.