In last week's class, my classmates presented their "mini-lessons" based on a topic from the grade 10 curriculum. Their presentations were very interesting and effective. I wish I had seen these types of activities prior to going out on my teaching block because it would have been very useful in my grade 10 academic math class that I taught.
My favourite of the three presentations was hands down the last one by Danielle. Her topic of the night was the Pythagorean Theorem. Grade 10 is the first time that students are exposed to the Pythagorean Theorem. For Danielle's mini-lesson, she came up with a board game for students to practice this concept and it is such a great consolidation piece. It could also be used as a great hook to follow the introduction of a previous lesson on Pythagorean Theorem. Here's a photo of what the game board looked like:
My favourite of the three presentations was hands down the last one by Danielle. Her topic of the night was the Pythagorean Theorem. Grade 10 is the first time that students are exposed to the Pythagorean Theorem. For Danielle's mini-lesson, she came up with a board game for students to practice this concept and it is such a great consolidation piece. It could also be used as a great hook to follow the introduction of a previous lesson on Pythagorean Theorem. Here's a photo of what the game board looked like:
Neat, right?! Students first start by rolling the dice and the numbers on each die represent the lengths of the "legs" of a triangle a.k.a sides 'a' and 'b' in a^2 + b^2 = c^2. Next, using those values, they must solve for side 'c', otherwise known as the hypotenuse. The value of the hypotenuse is then the number of spaces they get to move on the board.
If students land on the squares with the question mark, they must pick up a question card. If they solve it correctly, then they get to roll one die and move that many spaces forward. If they answer it incorrectly, then their turn is over.
Although I lost, I had so much fun playing this game. In my defence, I kept on landing on the blue spaces which made me move backward and not forward. But despite my loss, I thoroughly enjoyed it! I will definitely be using this game in the future if I have to teach grade 10 again - thanks Danielle!
It is a great way to get students to practice calculating and solving questions pertaining to the Pythagorean Theorem without simply making them do boring homework questions or worksheets.
Although doing things like this can be very time consuming (at least the first time around), I think that it is very effective and students usually respond very well to activities of this nature. Some of them even vocalize their appreciation for it! I know I spent hours (I stayed up until 2am one night) creating "review stations" for my students before their quadratics test and a lot of them personally thanked me for it! And it is those times that make it all worth it. This profession is definitely a rewarding one, that's for sure!
I found this great visual representation that could be shown to students as well and thought I would share!
Now, it wouldn't feel right if I didn't leave you with a Pythagorean Theorem joke...I thought I'd switch it up a bit and show you a visual one this week! Enjoy!!
- The Function(al) Teacher
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