Karen, Lesson Plans

Lesson One:

Target Audience: Geometry class grades 8-12. (In my case, 8^th grade)

Big Idea: The students will investigate the Pythagorean Theorem using Geometer’s Sketchpad

Goal: The students will use Geometer’s Sketchpad to manipulate shapes in order to make sense of the Pythagorean Theorem. The ultimate goal will be for them to make their own conjectures and judge the validity of their conjectures. Also, once they have sufficiently covered the Pythagorean Theorem, they will investigate the converse.

Standards:

G.4.1 Identify and describe triangles that are right, acute, obtuse, scalene, isosceles, equilateral, and equiangular.
G.5.1 Prove and use the Pythagorean Theorem.
G.8.2 Decide whether a solution is reasonable in the context of the original situation.
G.8.5 State, use, and examine the validity of the converse, inverse, and contrapositive of “if – then” statements.
G.8.7 Construct logical arguments, judge their validity, and give counterexamples to disprove statements.

Resources:
www.indianastandards.org
http://www.wpunj.edu/icip/itm/Lessonpl/sketch/pythag.html

Lesson Two:

Target Audience: 7^th Grade Algebra I class

Big Idea: the students will use graphing calculators to investigate special types of linear systems

Goal: The students will break up into groups and choose one of the linear systems and discover the differences between the systems. Also, what it looks like when the systems have a solution, do not have a solution, have multiple solutions and make the visual connections with the slopes of the equations.

Standards:

A1.4.1 Graph a linear equation.
A1.4.3 Write the equation of a line in slope-intercept form. Understand how the slope and y-intercept of the graph are related to the equation.
A1.9.5 Use the properties of the real number system and the order of operations to justify the steps of simplifying functions and solving equations.

Resource:
Larson, Boswell, Kanold, and Stiff. Algebra 1.Evanston, IL. McDougal Littell, 2004.

Lesson Three:

Target Audience: Algebra I students (7^th -8^th grades)

Big Idea: Students will put in various values in a scatter plot and find the best fit line.

Goal: The students will learn the skills it takes to make the best fit line using a graphing calculator. They will also take this knowledge to help further their investigation and understanding of what a “best fit line” is. They will also investigate what happens to the best fit line when the plot information is altered.

Standards:

A1.3.1 Sketch a reasonable graph for a given relationship.
A1.4.5 Write the equation of a line that models a data set and use the equation (or the graph of the equation) to make predictions. Describe the slope of the line in terms of the data, recognizing that the slope is the rate of change.

Resource:
Larson, Boswell, Kanold, and Stiff. Algebra 1.Evanston, IL. McDougal Littell, 2004.