Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Shapes and Designs

The 7th graders have been learning about polygons and angles.  Some highlights of the unit include:

INVESTIGATION 1
  • Estimating rotations and angle measures
  • Measuring angles with angle rulers and protractors
  • Drawing shapes with given conditions
INVESTIGATION 2
  • Discovering formulas for finding angle sums of polygons
  • Understanding why certain shapes tessellate
  • Creating tessellations
INVESTIGATION 3
  • Discovering properties of triangles
  • Designing triangles and quadrilaterals with given conditions
  • Angle relationships
Enjoy the pics!



These students are attempting to find angle sums of triangles and quadrilaterals by tracing the shapes onto a piece of paper and the cutting off the angles to see if, when put together, they form either a straight line (180 degrees) or a full circle rotation (360 degrees).





Collaborative learning is evident in math class on a daily basis.  In this pic, a team of students are working to find patterns in the angle sums  that they discovered in polygons.


Students used a variety of strategies to find the various angle sums.  In both models shown here, students used the angle sum of a triangle to find  the angle sums of other polygons.




The eventual discovery, a formula for finding the angle sum of any polygon, and visual model to show why it works!