Kelly's use of Types of Triangles

The Types of Triangles website has links to download 2 separate Geometer's Sketchpad activities to explore types of triangles.  I could not get the file triangl1 to load properly, but triangl2 did load.  Since the files were generated in an earlier version of Sketchpad, I needed to adjust the second file before I could use with my class.  Students reactions were mixed.  The idea is to drag the vertices of a triangle until all sides have the same length and all angles have the same measure.  It's rather difficult to get measurements to be exact when the numbers are accurate to three decimal places, and some of the students (understandably) did not see the relationship be equiangular triangles and equilateral triangles because the measurements did not match.  Idea for improvement:  adjust settings to make measurements accurate to 0 decimal places. 

K. Wroblewski, September 2002

Kelly's comments on Similar Triangles

I actually used a variation of the second similar triangles activity on this page.  I chose to create a triangle in advance given some of the students have no previous experience with computers.  The student then had to manipulate the triangle and answer questions on the handout.  Students who finished early were then asked to test his/her conjecture by making a new triangle themselves.

K. Wroblewski, October 2002

Kelly's comments on Similar Triangles II

I used Similar Triangles (mentioned above) to explore a special case of similar triangles instead of using the activity described in Similar Triangles II.  What I did use out of Similar Triangles 2 were the Application Questions starting on page 5.  The activity described in the file does sound interesting and detailed, but does require more than one day in the computer lab.

K. Wroblewski, October 2002

Kelly's Comments on Inclinometers

I used a variation of the activity described on the Inclinometers website.  Students were divided into groups of 3 or 4.  Each group received a copy of Making your Inclinometer and Protractor supplied by the website.  The class recently learned the Sin, Cos, and Tan functions.  Using the inclinometers and trig functions, each group was assigned to measure at least three tall objects in the school courtyard.  Each group was asked to sketch each problem and determine what information was needed to determine the height of the object.

K. Wroblewski, October 2002