A blog about teaching and learning in a maths classroom.
Thursday, 12 February 2009 | 3 Comments
In my fourth year of teaching, I’m finally happy with how teaching sector graphs went.
Teaching Yr 8 to draw sector (pie) graphs sounds easy, yet has proven difficult. In producing a sector graph, there are a couple fundamentals drawn together — and connecting seemingly disparate concepts presents a roadblock for many students at our school.
Here’s the sequence of lessons that I used this year:
Eye Colour | Number | Fraction | Angle Size |
---|---|---|---|
Blue | 10 | 10⁄24 | 150° |
Brown | 8 | 8⁄24 | 120° |
Hazel | 6 | 6⁄24 | 90° |
Total | 24 |
This is where I saw students start to just take to drawing the sector graph with minimal guidance, suggesting they’d “got it”.
Four lessons which seemed to graduate nicely, and as we move on to the next type of graph, sector graphs seem complete.
By the way, Rocky seemed to be the most popular poster.
Image credit: Pie Chart by net_efekt on Flickr (Creative Commons)
Posted in • Lesson Idea • Graphs | Short URL: http://mths.co/1397
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MathsLinksSimon Job — eleventh year of teaching maths in a public high school in Western Sydney, Australia.
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