Curriculum placement
Grade 7. This describes the skill, not a learner estimate.
Solving two-step equations
Construct and solve two-step equations
Problem types
- Solve a two-step equation
- Solve a two-step equation story
- Choose the equation for a story
- Read a balance as a two-step equation
- Compare arithmetic and algebra steps
- Build the equation for a rate plus a fee
- Choose the equation after one step
Builds on
- Adding and subtracting signed numbers
- Solving one-step equations
- Word problems with signed numbers · Useful idea
A story with gains and losses becomes a two-step equation with signed numbers.
- Equivalent expressions · Useful idea
Seeing $5(x+8)$ as one group multiplied by 5 is what lets an equation be divided by 5 in a single step; factoring a number out shows the common factor first.
- Multi-step word problems · Useful idea
The steps in a multi-step story can be written as one equation with an unknown, then undone in reverse order.
- Two-step word problems · Earlier idea
A two-step story becomes a two-step equation when the unknown is the start or the amount in each group.
Leads to
- Supplementary, vertical, and adjacent angles
- Solving inequalities
- Linear equations with variables on both sides
- Solving absolute-value equations
- Why each equation step is valid · Extend the idea
Choosing the equation after one step is the move whose reason equation-reasoning names: each step is a property of equality applied to both sides.
Related skills
- Laws of exponents · Shared foundations
- Income tax, budgets, and net worth · Shared foundations
- Median and spread of signed data · Shared foundations
- Multiplying and dividing signed numbers · Shared foundations
- Inequalities on a number line · Shared foundations
Open the interactive map to explore lessons and skill connections.