Making Learning FUN!

These past few weeks, I've learned that there are many different strategies that are very helpful when you are teaching math. Being introduced to Geogebra and Geogebratube, using the Angle Finder, Creating visual aids from gumdrops and toothpicks. All these have made it easier to understand the concepts of angles, triangles, and polyhedrons. I found this link very helpful, it helps students to practice different areas in math. It provides games and fun activities you can do at home.

http://www.mathplayground.com/practice.php?topic=geometry

Using this website and other fun lesson plans make math more fun for everyone. There are many different ways to teach and you can gain new ideas from the past activities we've done in class. :)  

Gumdrop Ployhedra

Today we focused on Polyhedrons. Polyhedrons are three dimensional objects that have faces, vertices, and edges. Faces are the flat surfaces of the object, vertices are the points where two lines meet at the same point, and edges are the sides of the object. So today we got to work with Gumdrops and Toothpicks. Our activity was to create five different polyhedrons: cube, triangular pyramid, square pyramid, triangular prism, and a rectangular prism with the Gumdrops and Toothpicks. This helped us to see the faces, vertices, and edges of these polyhedrons.

We also noticed there was a pattern to the edges, faces, and vertices. The pattern we seen is a theorem called, Euler's Theorem, which is calculated by adding the vertices and the faces together, then subtracting the edges to equal two.

Euler's Theorem:   Vertices + Faces - Edges = 2

To better understand Euler's Theorem, I found this site very helpful.
http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/eulers-formula.html

Triangle Project

Last Wednesday, we continued using Geogebratube. During the class hour, we had to complete a worksheet that taught us how to create triangles using Geogebratube. Similar to making our house, we constructed an Isosceles Triangle, the we added a perpendicular line through the triangle, and we measured the midpoints of the isosceles triangle.

This activity helped us to see what different activities we could do using this program. By engaging the students to explore different learning ways using technology. Making this assignment more interesting and gaining the students attention to see that there are different ways to teach students how to learn math and by making it fun.

While doing this activity, I found a website that helps explain the isosceles triangle, equilateral triangle, and the scalene triangle. What type of angles inside the triangle, visualizing the different measurements within the triangle, and finding the area and perimeter of the triangle.
http://www.mathsisfun.com/triangle.html

Geogebra Fun

Last Monday, we were introduced to Geogebra. This program is very helpful, it helps you to make different polygons, parallel lines, everything that helps you to understand geometry. It's a very fun program to work with, you could have your students use this program and make up a worksheet that they can complete using Geogebra. In class we created our own house, using different polygons and creating objects around your house. This exercise was very helpful, to see how useful this program is for students to use while learning about math. Here is the house I created using Geogebra.

Parallel, Complementary, Supplementary, & all the Good Stuff!

On Wednesday our main focus were Parallel lines and it's Transversal. We all are familiar with Parallel lines, two lines that never touch/intercept with one another and must have an equal distance between them.

Now the word Transversal, I know you must be thinking, "What is a Transversal?!" Well a Transversal is just a line that crosses through the parallel lines. This creates individual spaces within the parallel lines, which are important in math.

Since there is a transversal, we now know that the parallel lines create individual angles. These angles make up specific areas that are located within the parallel lines. Such as: Corresponding Angles, Alternate Interior and Exterior Angles, and Vertical Angles.

Corresponding Angles: Would be angle 1 and angle 5, because they are on the same side of the transverasl and are located on the same spot of each parallel line.
Alternate Interior Angles: Would be angle 3 and angle 6, because each are located on opposite sides of the transversal and are both on the inside of the parallel lines.
Alternate Exterior Angles: Would be angle 2 and angle 7, because they are located on opposite sides of the transversal and are on the outside of the parallel lines.
Vertical Angles: Would be angle 2 and angle 3, because they are angles that were created when two lines intercepted.
Supplementary Angles: Are angles that add up to 180 degrees.

Complementary Angles: Are angles that add up to 90 degrees.

Angle Finder

Have you ever been lost or confused when you didn't know the correct angle when looking at an object? Using an Angle Finder is a template that is very helpful when you are wanting to know a specific angle. This template can help you determine the four different types of angles in a triangles, which we all are familiar with: acute angle, obtuse angle, right angle, and a straight angle. Using this template, determining the correct angle should be easy. To make the Angle Finder you would need one note card. At the bottom left you will make a square using the corner of the note card. Then you would name that edge a right angle, because it is a perfect 90 degree angle. At the very bottom of the note card you will label straight angle, because we all know a straight angle is 180 degrees. With these two in mind, when you put this note card against an object you can determine an acute angle and an obtuse angle. An acute angle will be anything less than the 90 degree angle, and an obtuse angle is anything greater than the 90 degree angle. This tool is very helpful and it's easy to create! :)