Pythagoras Outside
Saturday, 15 May 2010
This is a fairly simple activity that allows for something different in the teaching of Pythagoras’ Theorem.
Take your class outside, find a nice flat area of concrete, and get them drawing some big triangles. Students then check the length of the third side by measurement and calculation.
The very brief lesson plan:
- Take pen, book, calculator. Find a partner to work with.
- Show the group what we’re going to do:
- draw a triangle (30cm, 40cm)
- measure the hypotenuse
- do the calculation
- Students do two triangles on their own (see worksheet):
- draw
- measure
- calculate
Download: Pythagoras Outside - Worksheet (PDF 66 KB)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License (?).
Comments
Something you might want to add to this assignment: Contractors use the pythagorean theorem (usually a 3,4,5 right triangle) to get a perpendicular line from a building wall, say for a deck. Mark a point outside near a wall and ask students to figure out how to draw a line from the point to the wall that is exactly perpendicular.
author
Nice idea Joe. Could also get them to determine how straight our school is, are the walls perpendicular to the ground?
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