# Engaging students: Finding the area of regular polygons

In my capstone class for future secondary math teachers, I ask my students to come up with ideas for engaging their students with different topics in the secondary mathematics curriculum. In other words, the point of the assignment was not to devise a full-blown lesson plan on this topic. Instead, I asked my students to think about three different ways of getting their students interested in the topic in the first place.

I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).

This student submission comes from my former student Conner Dunn. His topic, from Geometry: finding the area of regular polygons.

How can technology be used to effectively engage students with this topic? Note:  It’s not enough to say “such-and-such is a great website”; you need to explain in some detail why it’s a great website.

A good way to get students into the concept and see it’s real life use is to be given a realistic problem. The natural world doesn’t typically give you perfectly regular polygons, but we certainly like making them ourselves. Better yet, we can make regular polygons of a certain area knowing the methodology behind computing their areas. Using GeoGebra, I can challenge students to construct a regular polygon of an exact area using what they know about the use of equilateral triangles to compute area.

For example, let’s say I ask for a hexagon with an area of 12√3 square units. While there’s a few strategies of constructing a regular hexagon that Geometry students may know of, the strategy to shoot for here is to recognize this means we want a hexagon with a side length of 2 then construct the triangles. GeoGebra allows for students to use line segments and give them certain lengths, as well as construct angles using a virtual compass tool. Below is the solution to this example by constructing 6 equilateral triangles (each with an area of 2√3 square units) to form the regular hexagon.

How does this topic extend what your students should have learned in previous courses?

By the end of the unit, students will have learned the formula for finding the area of a polygon (A = (1/2) * a * p, with a being the apothem, and p being the perimeter). But a big part of this unit is how we derive the formula from the process in which we solve the area using this equilateral triangle method. From many previous courses, students will have learned both the order of operations and properties of equality in equations, and we use this previous knowledge to connect a geometric understanding of area to an algebraic one. For example, when we have the idea of multiplying the area of an equilateral triangle by the number of sides, n, in the polygon, we have A = (1/2) b * h * n. It is by the use of communitive property that students can rearrange the variables like this: A = (1/2)h*b * n. And then we conclude that the b*n reveals that the perimeter of the polygon plays a role in our equation. This may seem subtle, but students being fluent in this knowledge helps them work in their geometric understandings much easier.

How has this topic appeared in high culture (art, classical music, theatre, etc.)?

A big part of the method for understanding area of polygons is seeing how we can perfectly fit equilateral triangles inside of our polygons of choice. Perfectly fitting shapes into and around other shapes is something you see in mosaic art everywhere, particularly in Islamic architecture.

While mosaic artists are not necessarily calculating the areas of their art pieces (they might but I doubt it), a big part what makes these buildings so nice to look at is how the shapes fit with one another so nicely. This is an art that’s very intentional in its aesthetically pleasing aroma. This is something I think Geometry students can take to heart when confronting Geometry problems (a just as well with future courses). It’s the overlooked skill of literally connecting pieces together in order to get something we want. In the case of the Islamic architect, what we want is a pleasing building to look at, but math, of course, brings in more possible things to shoot for and equips us with plenty of pieces to (literally) connect together.

# Engaging students: Finding the area of a circle

In my capstone class for future secondary math teachers, I ask my students to come up with ideas for engaging their students with different topics in the secondary mathematics curriculum. In other words, the point of the assignment was not to devise a full-blown lesson plan on this topic. Instead, I asked my students to think about three different ways of getting their students interested in the topic in the first place.

I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).

This student submission comes from my former student Brendan Gunnoe. His topic, from Geometry: finding the area of a circle.

History: Squaring the circle

The ancient Greeks and other groups at the time had a fascination with geometry. These cultures tended to like thinking in terms of simpler geometric shapes, such as circles, equilateral triangles and squares. One of the classic problems proposed by these ancient peoples was “Can you create a square with the same area as a circle with finitely many steps only using a compass and straightedge?”. This problem stood for thousands of years, stumping even the most brilliant of mathematicians that attempted to show it true. Eventually, in the year 1882, it was finally proven impossible because of a property of the number π. It’s not too hard to show that π isn’t an integer, nor is it rational. What was left to show is whether π was algebraic or transcendental. The proof from 1882 showed that π is in fact transcendental, proving that it cannot be made using the rules set out by the original question. If a number is algebraic, then it is a solution to a polynomial with rational coefficients.

Curriculum: Using limit of triangular approximations to get the integral

The teacher starts off class by drawing a circle with an inscribed triangle, another with a square, and so on until a hexagon is inscribed. The teacher then draws isosceles triangles that originate at the circles center and extend to the corners of the polygons. The teacher could ask questions like “What do you notice about the total area of the triangles and the area of the circle as we keep adding sides to the polygon?” and “What do you notice about the triangles we made and the little wedges of the circle, what’s the same and what’s different about them?”. Then the teacher could arrange both the triangles and wedges in an alternating up and down fashion, almost like two zippers, to line up the triangles and wedges. The teacher could ask “What’s the length of the top of the triangles? What about the tops of the wedges, what’s their length?”.

Finally, the teacher asks “What happens when we let the number of pieces gets REALLY big? What happens to difference between the area of the triangles and wedges? What about the tops of the triangles and the tops of the wedges?”. In the limit, the upper edge converges to half of the circumference of the circle and the height of the triangles converges to the radius of the circle. Using this line of thinking, the teacher guides the students into seeing how you can derive the equation for the area of a circle by using approximating it with triangles, and then looking at what happens in the limit.

Application

A telescope’s lens is what’s used to control how much light gets into the eye piece. Suppose you’re an astronomer and want to take a photo of the full Moon on a clear night, which gives off 0.25 lumens/s-m2. Suppose your camera needs to get a total of at least 3 lumens to produce a good photo and 5 lumens to get an amazing photo. What’s the radius of a lens (in centimeters) that can take a good photo in 10 minutes? What’s the radius of a lens that can take an amazing photo in 10 minutes?

Now suppose you’re working with the Hubble space telescope in low Earth orbit trying to get photos of a nearby star system. The radius of the main telescope is 120cm and the star system you want to observe is giving off light at a rate of 10-5 lumens/s-m2. How long will it take to get a good photo with Hubble? What about a great photo?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaring_the_circle

# Engaging students: Finding the area of a right triangle

In my capstone class for future secondary math teachers, I ask my students to come up with ideas for engaging their students with different topics in the secondary mathematics curriculum. In other words, the point of the assignment was not to devise a full-blown lesson plan on this topic. Instead, I asked my students to think about three different ways of getting their students interested in the topic in the first place.

I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).

This student submission again comes from my former student Trenton Hicks. His topic, from Geometry: finding the area of a right triangle.

As an engagement activity, give students the following problem: “A rectangle has dimensions of base: b and height: h. How many different ways can you cut this rectangle in half with a straight line? How many shapes can you make from the different ways you cut the rectangle in half? Now out of those, which shapes are not rectangles?”

This will leave only two different ways to cut the rectangle in half, yielding identical triangles on either side of the line. Now, ask the students, “From what we’ve already learned about rectangles, what would be the area of this rectangle?” After confirming the area is base times height, wait a few moments before saying anything else. Now that the students are thinking about the base, they will now start to make predictions about the triangles that we’ve just made and their areas. Have them write their guesses for the formula of the triangle down on a piece of paper, and keep them to the side through the lesson. From here, we can break them up into groups and give them 3 right triangles to solve for the area, and one equilateral triangle to solve for the area. Go through the answers together and compare groups’ answers, as well as their predictions on what the area of a triangle is.  The odds are, many groups will be stuck once they get to the equilateral triangle. If so, you may want to send them back to their groups to try and find the area, giving them the hint, that they may have to make new shapes, just as they did with our rectangle at the beginning. This lesson assumes that the students understand the pythagorean theorem so they can solve for the height of an equilateral triangle by making a new triangle. This way, the students can explore the phenomena of triangles’ area, and see if they can recognize that the height isn’t always a side of the triangle, but rather something they may have to solve for.

The students should be able to use similar techniques to find the area of a parallelogram, trapezoids, and other shapes, as these shapes are partially composed of triangles. As students progress to more complex 2-dimensional shapes, you can derive formulas as you go. As you move onto 3-dimensional shapes, we actually see lots of different triangles appear in the shapes’ respective nets. For instance, when computing the surface area of a triangular prism, we need to know how to compute the area of the base. We also see this same idea in computing volumes of triangular prisms, where we need to know the area of the triangular base. This is also applicable to pyramids, tetrahedrons, and octahedrons. Finally, these ideas are brought up again later in trigonometry where we can determine different parts of the formula with trigonometric ratios and functions and whenever the students learn Heron’s formula.

This concept of finding the area of a triangle expands many things that the students may already know. This won’t be the students’ first time seeing a triangle, nor will it be the first time they compute the area. Overall, this content should be a refresher and not new to the students. However, this may be the first time that the students are presented a rectangle and told to make a triangle out of it. From that point, they are told to make conclusions about the triangle’s area based on the rectangles area. As students think through this, they are using logic and reasoning to argue what makes geometric sense to one another. This further develops their mathematical reasoning skills, which may be a bit rusty since we far too often focus on the “what” and not the “why” and “how.”

# Engaging students: Defining the terms complementary angles, supplementary angles, and vertical angles

In my capstone class for future secondary math teachers, I ask my students to come up with ideas for engaging their students with different topics in the secondary mathematics curriculum. In other words, the point of the assignment was not to devise a full-blown lesson plan on this topic. Instead, I asked my students to think about three different ways of getting their students interested in the topic in the first place.

I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).

This student submission comes from my former student Mason Maynard. His topic, from Geometry: defining the terms complementary angles, supplementary angles, and vertical angles.

How can technology (YouTube, Khan Academy [khanacademy.org], Vi Hart, Geometers Sketchpad, graphing calculators, etc.) be used to effectively engage students with this topic?

I found this website that is an interactive game that students can play when learning about this topic. With this type of topic, the main thing that you want your students to remember is vocabulary. The website that I found uses a game to get kids identify the missing angle in degrees and each angle is either complementary, supplementary or vertical. I really like this game because our students need to develop that muscle memory of seeing an angle and knowing whether it is a complementary, supplementary or vertical set. Once you can get the students to see it and immediately identify it, they can then transition into finding the specific degrees. I also think that anytime you can put something into a game format, students will try harder. Everyone is competitive so why not channel that into learning. The game on the website is very straight forward with the students so you can count on it not causing any misconceptions.

How has this topic appeared in high culture?

The article that I found touches on angles but I feel like you could use in throughout the entire unit and just touch on in during every topic you cover. Overall, the article refers to the history of the Geometric Abstract Art Movement. It mainly focuses on the use of lines and shapes and angles but I really feel like you could connect this to the students in your classroom. Within a lot of these paintings or sculptures during this period, you will find all three angle types. These artists needed these angles to make the piece balanced and have harmony. Other needs to use a specific angle to demonstrate contrast. That is really the most beautiful thing about mixing art with math. The artist has the power to use it in a way that conveys their feelings and allows for expression. This is really a way to go beyond the scope of math and show students that we are learning real life and important topics.

https://www.kooness.com/posts/magazine/the-history-of-geometric-abstract-art

How could you as a teacher create an activity or project that involves your topic?

An activity that I found online was that you just give students papers and have them fold them in specific patterns and then they use the protractor to measure out the degree of angles. I really like this because it is simple but yet you can branch out with it in many ways. With students folding papers, you will get many different folds from the students and this allows them to do some investigation on their own and then afterward, you can allow them to share their findings with their classmates. This cooperative learning allows for all of them to pounce ideas of one another and for the teacher, it can show you who is struggling with anything specific. The really cool thing about it is that if you fold the paper twice then you can setup the scenario of them finding adjacent angles. Then this could potentially lead them to discovering opposite angles on their own for future lessons.

https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/3311/overview

# Engaging students: Using a truth table

In my capstone class for future secondary math teachers, I ask my students to come up with ideas for engaging their students with different topics in the secondary mathematics curriculum. In other words, the point of the assignment was not to devise a full-blown lesson plan on this topic. Instead, I asked my students to think about three different ways of getting their students interested in the topic in the first place.

I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).

This student submission comes from my former student Jonathan Chen. His topic, from Geometry: using a truth table.

What interesting (i.e., uncontrived) word problems using this topic can your students do now?

There are many kinds word problems that the students will be able to understand using truth tables. Truth tables are very common and appear in everyone’s life. Some of these problems may not even appear in a math class. Statements such as, “Sarah has a cat and the Sarah’s cat is a tabby” can be broken down on a truth table and see if the statement is true or false. While the topic of truth tables is very basic, the concept of math helping students getting better at English and understanding statements is truly shocking and revolutionary to students. The misconception that math cannot help a student’s ability to better understand or speak English is not true because concepts such as truth tables have the students look closely at the sentences to determine if a statement is true or false. This can help students better understand and connect how math can build upon a student’s skill to better understand a language.

How can this topic be used in your student’ future courses in mathematics or science?

This topic reappears when doing any kind of proof, especially proofs that involve proof by negation or proof by contrapositive. Understanding the wording of a statement is very important when trying to prove that a statement is true. The proof of a statement can depend on whether an “and” or an “or” is used in the statement trying to be proven. Mathematicians can take the negation of a statement and prove that the negation is impossible to prove that the original statement is true because the negation of a statement being false means the original statement is true. Mathematicians can take the contrapositive of a statement and prove that the contrapositive is true to prove that the original statement is true because the contrapositive of a statement provide the same result as the original statement. Truth tables also help students prepare for Venn diagrams, specifically with the idea of union and interception. Union in Venn diagrams have a similar effect and design as “or” in a statement on a truth table, and interception in Venn diagrams have a similar effect and design to “and” in a statement on a truth table.

Truth tables have been around to help mathematicians provide and solve all kinds of proofs, specifically involving “if-then” statements. Through verbal rules and word choices, truth tables can be used to help mathematicians learn which statements are true or false. With this information, proving theorems, lemmas, corollaries, and more become much easier and possible. Some statements can only work or are easier to prove when the proof begins with the backwards from their original statement. This helped build a draft of the words and order mathematicians use to create their proofs. More specifically, it helped mathematicians create a language that help other mathematicians better understand how they got their conclusion. Many important theorems have been proven because the concept of truth tables have provided statements with alternative methods to solve or show how the theorem can be proven. This can be shown when mathematicians use the concept of negation and contrapositive to prove that their original statement is considered true. Truth tables can also make it visible to understand how two parts, that are either true or false, can create a true or false statement depending on the two parts given. This concept is similar to union and intersection in Venn Diagrams.

References:

Lodder, J. (n.d.). Deduction through the Ages: A History of Truth. Retrieved from Mathematical Association of America: https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/deduction-through-the-ages-a-history-of-truth

Sets and Venn Diagrams. (n.d.). Retrieved from Math is Fun: https://www.mathsisfun.com/sets/venn-diagrams.html

# Engaging students: Defining the words acute, right, and obtuse

In my capstone class for future secondary math teachers, I ask my students to come up with ideas for engaging their students with different topics in the secondary mathematics curriculum. In other words, the point of the assignment was not to devise a full-blown lesson plan on this topic. Instead, I asked my students to think about three different ways of getting their students interested in the topic in the first place.

I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).

This student submission again comes from my former student Jesus Alanis. His topic: how to engage geometry students when defining the words acute, right, and obtuse.

How could you as a teacher create an activity or project that involves your topic?

The way you as a teacher can create an activity for defining angles is with Snowing Angles. The way you could start this lesson is by explaining that right angles are 90 degrees, acute angles are less than 90 degrees, and obtuse angles are greater than 90 degrees. Then make students get 3 different color markers to label the different types of angles. On this website, there is a worksheet that has different snowflakes. On the worksheet, you would get students to use a protractor(you are going to have to teach students how to use a protractor) to measure the angles so that students get to determine what kind of angle it is and use the marker to mark the type of angle it is.

Once students are done with the worksheet and understand the types of angles, they can start building their own snowflake. While the students get to building their snowflakes, you could ask students questions to get them thinking. Example: Is this a right angle or an acute angle? Something I would add to this project or activity would be to make sure that the students have at least one of each of the angles that were taught.

Also, this is a great project for the holidays and students get to take it home becoming a memory of what was taught in class.

https://deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com/2012/12/its-snowing-angles.html

How can this topic be used in your students’ future courses in mathematics or science?

The use of angles in this lesson is for students to know about the name of angles which are acute, right, and obtuse. The importance that students need to take away is that students need to know what the degrees of the angles are. When they continue talking about angles students will realize that a straight line is 180 degrees. When given a missing angle either an acute angle or an obtuse angle you could realize that an acute angle plus an obtuse angle equals 180 degrees. Also, with 180 degrees, you could find an angle that is missing with enough information. Later with this fact, students will learn about the interior, exterior, supplementary, and commentary angles. Students will also use the knowledge of angles towards triangles and specifically right angles with using the Pythagorean Theorem. Later, trigonometry will be added to this idea. Angles would then be used for the Unit Circle.

How has this topic appeared in high culture?

• The way that angles are used in high culture is photography. Photography has become an appreciated form of art. Angles are literally everywhere. For example, if you look at the cables on bridges or the beams that hold building form angles. Also by using your camera you could use angles to take pictures a certain way whether if you want to take a straight picture of your city or it could be at an angle to make the building looks a certain way.
• Also, angles are used in cinematography. The way the camera is angled plays a major role in the film process. Cameras are angled to help the viewers feel a part of the journey that the character is experiencing. The angle helps provide the film with what the setting is like or how characters are moving in the film. The angles are there to make the experience more realistic. The angles are important because they provide the setting, the character’s storyline, or give a view of where the different character may be in the same scene. (https://wolfcrow.com/15-essential-camera-shots-angles-and-movements/)

References

• Educational, Deceptively. “It’s Snowing Angles!” Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational, Deceptively Educational, 6 Dec. 2012, deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com/2012/12/its-snowing-angles.html.
• Wolfcrow By Sareesh. “15 Essential Camera Shots, Angles and Movements.” Wolfcrow, 2017, wolfcrow.com/15-essential-camera-shots-angles-and-movements/.

# Engaging students: Finding the circumference of a circle

In my capstone class for future secondary math teachers, I ask my students to come up with ideas for engaging their students with different topics in the secondary mathematics curriculum. In other words, the point of the assignment was not to devise a full-blown lesson plan on this topic. Instead, I asked my students to think about three different ways of getting their students interested in the topic in the first place.

I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).

This student submission comes from my former student Jaeda Ransom. Her topic, from Geometry: finding the circumference of a circle.

How can technology (YouTube, Khan Academy [khanacademy.org], Vi Hart, Geometers Sketchpad, graphing calculators, etc.) be used to effectively engage students with this topic?

Games are a great way to engage students and use technology at once. This online circumference memory game is an engaging way for students to practice their circumference solving skills. Students can work by themselves or with a partner. They have to find the circumference of different circles, 6 to be exact, and then play a memory matching game. The game is cute and adds a little fun to their extra practice. The link to the game: http://www.algebra4children.com/Games/Circumference/Circumference.html

Another great tool is an online circle tool from illuminations. It is already prepped for use and only has 3 functions, an introduction screen, investigation, and practice problems. Students can work independently or with a partner to solve the problems, it also has finding the area of a circle practice problems and investigations as well. The link to the tool: https://www.nctm.org/Classroom-Resources/Illuminations/Interactives/Circle-Tool/

How could you as a teacher create an activity or project that involves your topic?

An activity that would be great for this topic would be a scavenger hunt. This activity involves the students to go around the school premises and find circular objects, measure the diameter or radius of the circular object and record the object, measurements, and location on their paper. Students would work in pairs and the materials needed would be a ruler, pen/ pencil, clipboard, and long piece of yarn (for students who find circular objects bigger than a ruler/ meter stick). Once the pairs have found the most circular objects with their given measurements in the 8 minutes received for the hunt, students will come back to class and do the calculations using the formula. After calculations are complete the pair with the most objects and completed calculations is the winner of the scavenger hunt. Students will then work with another pair and discuss similar objects found and compare calculations. Students will also be encouraged to discuss why their calculations might have differed or some plausible errors.

What interesting things can you say about the people who contributed to the discovery and/or the development of this topic?

Evidence of historic use of perimeter and circumference goes back to the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians at around 1800 B.C.E. But, Archimedes is credited to be the first one to formally discover pi in 240 B.C.E. Archimedes is known to be the greatest mathematician to live. Though people did not know much about his life, he was known for many things including the inventor of superweapons such as ‘death ray’ and ‘giant claw’.  Another interesting fact is that Eratosthenes was the first one to discover the circumference of the earth. The circumference of the earth was said to be found sometime between 276 and 195 B.C.E. For Eratosthenes to find the circumference of the entire earth without the resources and technology we have to date now is very impressive. Unfortunately, Eratosthenes’ method to calculate the Earth’s circumference has been lost; and what has been preserved is a simplified version by Cleomedes which helped popularize the discovery.

References:

https://ideagalaxyteacher.com/area-and-circumference-activities/

https://sciencing.com/origins-perimeter-circumference-7815683.html

# Engaging students: Deriving the Pythagorean theorem

In my capstone class for future secondary math teachers, I ask my students to come up with ideas for engaging their students with different topics in the secondary mathematics curriculum. In other words, the point of the assignment was not to devise a full-blown lesson plan on this topic. Instead, I asked my students to think about three different ways of getting their students interested in the topic in the first place.

I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).

This student submission comes from my former student Gary Sin. His topic, from Geometry: deriving the Pythagorean theorem.

How could you as a teacher create an activity or project that involves your topic?

The Pythagorean Theorem is an extremely important topic in mathematics that is useful even when after the students graduate high school and proceed to college. As a student majoring in mathematics, I always like to explore the fundamental proofs of different theorems; I feel that if the student is able to derive a formula or theorem; it displays mastery over a mathematical topic.

As such, I will have the students work with a geometrical proof of the theorem. The students will be given 4 triangles with sides a, b, and c, and a square with sides c. I will instruct the students to fidget with the shapes and allow them to explore the different combinations that might lead to the theorem. As the class slowly figures out what combinations work, I will provide algebraic hints to the proof of the theorem. (including $(a+b)^2$ and $c^2$).

Finally, once a majority of the students figure out the geometric proof of the theorem; I will recap and reiterate the different findings of the students and summarize the geometric proof of the theorem.

How can this topic be used in your students’ future courses in mathematics or science?

Pythagorean Theorem is extremely useful when beginning geometry, it applies to all right triangles and one could use it too to find the area of regular polgyons as they are also made up of right triangles. The surface area and volumes of pyramids, triangular prisms also rely on the theorem. Another major topic in geometry is trigonometry, where the trigonometric ratios are introduced and they are also based on right triangles. The Law of Cosines is also derived from the theorem. The theorem is also used in the distance formula between 2 points on the Cartesian plane.

The theorem is also used in Pre-Calculus and Calculus. Complex numbers uses it (similar to the distance formula). The basis of the unit circle and converting Cartesian coordinates to polar coordinates or vice versa also utilizes the theorem. The fundamental trigonometric identity is also derived from the theorem. Cross products of vectors uses the theorem, the theorem can also be seen in Calculus 3 in 3 dimensional geometry and finding volumes of various shapes because the theorem still applies to planes.

How does this topic extend what your students’ should have learned in previous courses?

The theorem uses algebra to represent unknown sides in a right triangle. The students should have also learned about the names of the different sides on a right triangle, namely the legs and the hypotenuse. Being able to identify which side is the hypotenuse is very important in understanding and applying this theorem. Additionally, the students must be able to recognize what a right angle is which will determine if a triangle is a right triangle or not.

Deriving the theorem requires knowledge on the multiplication of polynomials, and how they are factored out. The students also use powers of 2 in the theorem and should be aware of how to square 2 integers and what the product is equal to. In the case of a non Pythagorean triple, the student must be able to manipulate radicals and simplify them accordingly.

Finally, the student must be able to identify what variables are provided and know what unknown they have to solve for. The variables and unknown side requires basic knowledge on how algebra works and how to use equations and manipulate them accordingly to solve for an unknown.

# Engaging students: Using the undefined terms of points, line and plane

In my capstone class for future secondary math teachers, I ask my students to come up with ideas for engaging their students with different topics in the secondary mathematics curriculum. In other words, the point of the assignment was not to devise a full-blown lesson plan on this topic. Instead, I asked my students to think about three different ways of getting their students interested in the topic in the first place.

I plan to share some of the best of these ideas on this blog (after asking my students’ permission, of course).

This student submission again comes from my former student Alizee Garcia. Her topic, from Geometry: using the undefined terms of points, line and plane.

How could you as a teacher create an activity or project that involves your topic?

There is various way I could create an activity for this topic, but I think one that would be the most successful a project for the students in which they can better understand the terms. Since all three terms are related and relatively simple to describe the project could also be an in-class activity depending on the time given. However, in this project the students would have to take pictures of real-world examples for a point, line, and plane as best as they can and describe why they chose the examples they did. It is important that when teaching geometry as well as other lessons, that real-world examples are given to help students better understand the topics. Also, students can give their best definitions of the terms as well as drawing out them. This will allow students to think about the terms mathematically and as real-world subjects too.

How has this topic appeared in pop culture (movies, TV, current music, video games, etc.)?

The use of undefined terms point, line and plane can be used in video games such as Minecraft and call of duty. Both games consist of a map of some sort with different coordinates of safe zones or just where the game will take place. In call of duty, using an aiming weapon allows for the player to find a point and from there to where they are aiming from is the line that will connect it. As well as in Minecraft, you are able to build off of other buildings as well as being able to connect the points in a certain grid in order to succeed. I think video games and technology would be the most common pop culture examples that this topic will appear in. Although there are far more video games that relate to the undefined terms of point, line, and plane, it is a good way to let students understand how geometry can be seen in the real world.