I used this activity to further reinforce the concept of similarity by having students create their own triangles given a set of criteria (drawn and cut out, given two angles and a side). The ultimate goal of this activity is to have the students find the other students in the class who have been given triangles similar to theirs (their "Triangle Partners").

Once the Triangle Partners have found each other, they should be able to justify why they are partners. Many of my students did this by matching the angles of their triangles together. I think this physical act of matching the triangles angles is a great reinforcement of the key characteristic of similar triangles.


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Grade Level: 10

Content:

Mathematical Processes:

Trigonometry Exploration 2

Copyright © 2009 Elaine Simmt