Answer: 1900 students
Step-by-step explanation:
The first part of solving this question involves defining a linear equation that can help you find the population of students in 2010
in this case, treat the year as your 'run' or X-values and student population as your 'rise' or y-values --> from here you will be able to find your slope (rise/run)
rise / run = slope = (1500 - 1200)/(2006-2003)
--> it is important to find by how much the rise and run changed because that is what slope is measuring --> the rate of change of students over time
when you simplify the above fraction, you get
300/3 = 100
this means that the slope = 100 (in the context of the problem, the school's population is growing by 100 students per year)
now that you have your slope, you need to find how many years between the initial year and 2010 have passed --> this will provide you with your timeframe for how many additional students have joined the school
this is found by: 2010-2003 = 7 years
thus, you know that there have been seven years of growth since 2003 and when you multiply 7*the slope (100) you get 700, meaning between 2003 and 2010, an additional 700 students have joined the school
but you aren't done yet --> add the 700 back to the original population of 1200 to find TOTAL student population in 2010
therefore total student population is 1200+700 = 1900 students