This video demonstrates students plotting polar coordinates by actually moving their feet. It's just another way to move and learn. When you physically plot the point with your feet it cements the process in your mind. Use blue masking tape on the ground and plot some points with your students. It's as easy as that.
The students are plotting the point (3, 150 degrees) on the ground. They found out another way to plot it was (3, -210 degrees)
I would you encourage you to buy some blue tape and plot ANY type of point or graph with FEET! You will be amazed at the retention that your students will have.
Pick a question that you asked today in class. Try to reverse the question. Make the answer the question and the question the answer. You might notice the question might be a lot more open ended? Is it a higher level question than your original? So next time you are making a worksheet, reverse a few of your questions and mix them in along side some of your original type questions. Then see if your worksheet has a better mix of conceptual and procedural questions.
Examples
Geometry: Original Question: What is the area of this parallelogram given the height is 4 cm and the base is 10 cm? Reversed Question: Find the base and height of a parallelogram given the area is 40 square cm.
Algebra: Original Question: Solve this equation 5x + 10 = 30 Reversed Question: Find a two step equation that has a solution of x = 4.
Precalculus: Original Question: What is sin (30 degrees)? Reversed Question: Sin of what degree value(s) give an answer of .5?
Here is a cool site full of examples from a class using Desmos http://padlet.com/wall/rvkica26qi
Here is one of those examples. Click on it to make it interactive.
This is one of the "spokes" of the Student Engagement Wheel. The Student Engagement Wheel is show below. Use the Student Engagement Wheel to help you measure the student engagement in your class.
This is one of the "spokes" of the Student Engagement Wheel. The Student Engagement Wheel is show below. Use the Student Engagement Wheel to help you measure the student engagement in your class.
I have always had trouble with teaching the Ambiguous Case. It seemed that whatever I did, the explanation was not good enough. The kids came out of my class with their heads exploding with all the things they had to remember. A couple colleagues and I created a hands-on activity that really explores the heart of the ambiguous case and the Law of Sines SSA example. After going through this lesson, I really feel like the students had a grasp on the ambiguous case conceptually. My work is not finished, because I have to now finish the procedural process and we should be good.. The first video is the explanation of the original challenge. The second and third videos where students explain their partial and full answers.
Triangle Challenge Rules and Guidelines SMARTBoard Notebook LessonPDF Lesson
1. Use one pipe cleaner that is 8 inches long (light colored) and put it as side two
2. Angle A is exactly 30 degrees.
3. Side one is a second pipe cleaner (darker color) and starts at 12 inches long. It can be shortened by 1 inch increments.
4. Create as many triangles as you can using the above restrictions.
5. Hint: There are more than 10 solutions.
