My students' preferred method for finding their triangle partner was matching up their triangles' angles, or “nesting” the smaller triangle inside the larger one, but I wanted to make sure that they did not miss the connection between the ratios of the sides in a triangle. This activity once again has them use ratios to confirm that they are indeed partners.

I also wanted to start to formalize what it means to have similar-shaped triangles, so I begin to ask some specific questions about what makes a triangle's shape unique. One prohibitive factor that I found was my students inability to express themselves verbally when discussing mathematical topics.

 

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Grade Level: 10

Content:

Mathematical Processes:

Trigonometry Exploration 2b Page 1
Trigonometry Exploration 2b Page 2

Copyright © 2009 Elaine Simmt