Assignments for MATH 3262

Fall 2006

 

Date Assigned

Assignment

Tues, Aug 22

Write your mathography.  Due Thursday, Aug 24.

 

Complete the membership form to join GCTM.  Print the completed form and bring to class.  (You are in the Central East region.)

 

Print a copy of the Georgia Performance Standards and put these in your working portfolio.  This printer friendly version is sufficient.

 

Thurs, Aug 24

Paul Kunkel’s website for Geometry Constructions can be found at http://whistleralley.com/construction/reference.htm

Practice the first 7 constructions for homework.

You will need to buy a compass and straightedge—please let me know if you need help with these constructions.  Work neatly and carefully.  You should be proficient with these constructions no later than next Tuesday.  Put this work in your working portfolio.

 

By next Thursday, August 31, be sure you have completed Tour 1 and Tour 2 for Geometer’s Sketchpad.  Recall the software is in the labs on campus—go to Programs, Departmental Programs, Teacher Development, Geometer’s Sketchpad, Geometer’s Sketchpad v. 4.06. 

 

Tues, Aug 29

Explore the site “Fibonacci Numbers and Nature” at http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibnat.html

 

Plot the points for height vs navel height—using the data collected in class. 

 

Read the process standards for Grades 6-8.  List 3 observations you  can make about the reading. 

 

Complete the compass and straightedge constructions.  Complete the Geometer’s Sketchpad tutorials.

 

For review:  What is the Golden Ratio?  What is a Golden Rectangle?  Do you have any Golden Rectangles in your house?

 

 

Thurs, Aug 31

Compass and Straightedge assignment—to be turned in Tuesday.

 

Question:  Are all golden rectangles similar?  Provide a mathematical explanation to support your decision.

 

Vocabulary discussed:  similar figures, congruent figures, rectangle, slope.  Go to the InterMath site for the dictionary. 

 

Review finding the slope of the eyeball fit line for the height vs navel height data.

Tues, Sept 5

Review finding the equation of an eyeball fit line for data that has a linear trend—like the data for height vs navel height.

 

Work the problems on the handout entitled Points, Lines, and Planes.  We will discuss these problems Thursday.

Thurs, Sept 7

Try constructing a Golden Rectangle on Geometer’s Sketchpad—use the directions given out in class.  You must first begin with a rectangle—and this must be constructed!!  That is, when you drag on the figure, it should stay a rectangle—so you must construct some perpendiculars, you cannot just eyeball perpendiculars.

Tues, Sept 12

Use GSP to construct a square, a rectangle that is not a square, a parallelogram, and a rhombus.  Save your sketches as a single file and use the document options to insert pages for each quadrilateral.

Thurs, Sept 14

Investigate the following problem from the Intermath site.  Be prepared to justify your conclusions.

The Third Side

 

Do the problem:  How Many Rays?  Be prepared to justify your conclusions.

 

Tues, Sept 19

Classified Information

Outside Looking In

 

Thurs, Sept 21

Constructing Quadrilaterals with GSP

Tues, Sept 26

We will begin discussing the minimum conditions for congruent triangles.

 

Return to your file for Constructing Quadrilaterals with GSP.  Also construct a kite—include a new tab.  Investigate the properties of each quadrilateral.  For ex., how are the lengths of the sides related?  How are the angles related?  What do you notice about the diagonals?

Summarize your findings for each quadrilateral in a Word document.  Save this document and your GSP file.  This will be posted to your webpage.

 

Investigate the following:

Quadrilaterals Inscribed Inside Quadrilaterals     

In or Out?  Look up the definition of altitude of a triangle.

Balancing the Triangular Totter

 

Save your work.

 

 

GSP would be a useful tool to explore the following problems.  Please write your conjectures for each exploration and save your work. 

 

§         The segment connecting the midpoints of two sides of a triangle is called a midsegment of the triangle.  What conjectures can you make about the midsegment of a triangle?

 

§         The line segment connecting the midpoints of the two non-parallel sides of a trapezoid is called the midsegment of the trapezoid.  What conjectures can you make about the midsegment of a trapezoid?  (To explore with GSP you must first construct a trapezoid by constructing two lines that are parallel to each other.)

 

 

Thurs, Sept 28

Investigate these problems and be prepared to share your thinking in class.  Technology is not required (although could be used) to investigate these problems.  You should be able to offer mathematical justification for your conclusions.

Diagonals in a Polygon

Sum of Angles in a Polygon

 

Read and explore the activities in the handout Polygons and Angles (a 6th grade lesson) from the Connected Mathematics Project.  (This was given out in class.)  Be sure you understand the three ways an angle is considered.  Then write a reaction paper to the article “The Role of Definition.”  The activity Polygons and Angles is referenced in this article.  Your reaction paper should consist of two parts:  a brief summary of the article as well as your reaction to the article.  Your summary should be a synthesis of the main ideas and provide evidence that you understand these main ideas.  Your reaction to the article should provide evidence that you have carefully reflected upon these ideas to consider their impact or implications on the teaching and learning of mathematics.  In your reaction there should be evidence that you have grappled with the ideas to understand their relevance to you personally.  The Rubric for evaluating reaction papers will be used for evaluation.  You will be evaluated on your summary (3 pts), your reaction (4 pts), and your technical writing (3 pts).  Your reaction paper is due Tuesday, October 10.

 

Test Thursday, Oct 5.

 

Test 1 Concept Sheet

Thurs, Oct 13

Please create a folder on your z: drive or on a thumb drive so that all documents related to MATH 3262 can be saved to this folder. 

 

Go to the document Justifying Constructions—justify constructions 1 and 5.  We will look at construction 6 in class.

 

Explore this problem for homework: Quadrilateral Conjectures (GSP would be a useful tool).  

 

The following problem was assigned Sept 26.  Revisit the problem and bring your conjectures to class Tuesday for discussion:

GSP would be a useful tool to explore the following problems.  Please write your conjectures for each exploration and save your work. 

 

§         The segment connecting the midpoints of two sides of a triangle is called a midsegment of the triangle.  What conjectures can you make about the midsegment of a triangle?

 

§         The line segment connecting the midpoints of the two non-parallel sides of a trapezoid is called the midsegment of the trapezoid.  What conjectures can you make about the midsegment of a trapezoid?  (To explore with GSP you must first construct a trapezoid by constructing two lines that are parallel to each other.)

 

 

We will discuss the problem In or Out?  in class Tuesday (this problem was assigned earlier).  Be sure you know the definition of an altitude of a triangle.

 

 

Begin investigating the following InterMath problems—you are not expected to complete these investigations for Tuesday.  You will select one of these to write up formally—we will talk about the formal write up in class Tuesday (see below).  For now, begin your investigation and write down your observations/conjectures/questions—save to your folder.  

Find the Hidden Treasure

Capture the Flag

Shark Attack!

 

The following information will be discussed in class Tuesday—you may want to try downloading the template but if you have trouble, we will work on it Tuesday.  You should put the downloaded template in the folder created for MATH 3262.

 You investigated the problem, Sum of Angles in a Polygon, and we discussed the solution in class.  This problem is to be written up using the InterMath template for a write up found at http://intermath.coe.uga.edu/newInterMath/workshop/portf/writeup.doc.  When you click on the link, save the template—do not open it.  Then start Word and open the template—you will be able to make changes to the template for your write up. 

 

Tues, Oct 17

Investigate the following InterMath problems.

Half as much may be right

Vertex Angles in a Regular Polygon

 

You investigated the properties of various kinds of quadrilaterals and saved your observations to a Word document (see Tues, Sept 26).  Please send a copy of the Word document and your GSP file to me via an email.   

 

Send a copy of this investigation to me:  Quadrilaterals Inscribed Inside Quadrilaterals   

Tues, Oct 31

Class:

Discuss Justifying Constructions—construction 6.

 

Discuss:

§         The segment connecting the midpoints of two sides of a triangle is called a midsegment of the triangle.  What conjectures can you make about the midsegment of a triangle?

 

§         The line segment connecting the midpoints of the two non-parallel sides of a trapezoid is called the midsegment of the trapezoid.  What conjectures can you make about the midsegment of a trapezoid?  (To explore with GSP you must first construct a trapezoid by constructing two lines that are parallel to each other.)

 

Investigate this problem:  Draw a triangle ABC on lined notebook paper.  Draw a line parallel to one side of triangle ABC.  Conjectures?  Proof?

 

Who will share these problems Thursday?

Problem 1: Half as much may be right

Problem 2:  Vertex Angles in a Regular Polygon

 

 

Thinking about Area—need square tiles

 

Homework:  Finding Area by Moving and Combining—do problems 1-4 for Thursday and remaining problems for Tuesday—we will discuss these in class.

 

Formally write up a justification of construction  #1, #4, #5, or #6 from the website http://whistleralley.com/construction/reference.htm.  Due Tuesday—turn in hard copy. 

 

Thurs, Nov 2

Problem 1: Half as much may be right (discussed in class and justification given)

 

We discussed the following concepts:

Definition of a circle, radius, diameter, chord of  a circle, inscribed angle of a circle, central angle of a circle, definition of a sphere

 

Problem 2:  Vertex Angles in a Regular Polygon (Milton will present this problem Tuesday)

 

Discussed meaning of area.  What is a square inch?  What is a square foot?  Confirmed that two shapes can have the same area but different perimeters; confirmed two shapes can have the same perimeter but different areas.   Discussed area of a rectangle and why area of a rectangle can be found by multiplying length and width. 

 

Circumference of a circle (we will explore this concept in detail next week)

 

Homework:

Investigate this problem:

SAM

 

Justification of construction write up due Tuesday

 

Finding Area by Moving and Combining—do problems 1-4 on the handout for Tuesday and remaining problems for Thursday—we will discuss these in class.

 

Tues, Nov 7

Classwork:

Discuss Vertex Angles in a Regular Polygon (Milton will present this problem.)

 

Discuss problems 1-4 on the “Finding Area by Moving and Combining” handout. 

 

Circumference of a circle

 

Homework:

 

Work problem 5 on Finding Area by Moving and Combining” handout. 

Revisit the ideas about circumference and diameter—what did you learn through the activity in class? 

Solve the problem Rectangle Squares.

Solve the problem Walking Around the World

Revisit Half as much may be rightconsider the questions on the second page of this handout to prove the conjecture correct. 

 

Journals will be collected Thursday.

Thurs, Nov 9

Classwork:

Check Homework:

Half as much may be right

Rectangle Squares.

Walking Around the World

 

Find area of classroom.

 

Check HW:  Finding Area by Moving and Combining

 

Investigate:

Triangle Inside a Rectangle

Other area investigations

 

Homework:

Complete problems onFinding Area by Moving and Combining” handout.

Solve Running in Circles

 

Tues, Nov 14

Read the essay, The van Hiele Framework.  Read this essay for Thursday so we can discuss it in class. 

 

Find the area of the trapezoid.

Thurs, Nov 16

Read the article, Perimeter and Area through the van Hiele Model and write a 1-2 page reaction paper.  Due Tuesday, November 28.

To evaluate your writing, I will use the Rubric for Reaction Papers.

 

Below are the investigations that you have been assigned:

Properties of a Quadrilateral (Word document)

Quadrilaterals Inside Quadrilaterals

Sum of Angles in a Polygon

Justification of Construction

Area of a triangle, a parallelogram, and a trapezoid

One of the following:

Find the Hidden Treasure

Capture the Flag

Shark Attack!

 

Tues, Nov 21

See the investigation Triangles within a Triangle for a review and an extension of concepts we have studied. 

 

Investigate the problem Tangential Circles and provide a write up.  You should make a conjecture (perhaps based on a GSP sketch and then try to justify why your conjecture should be true.

 

Work these two problems for practice.

 

Reaction paper due Tuesday, Nov. 28.

 

The article “How Many Times Does a Radius Square Fit into the Circle?” is for your files.

Tues, Nov 28

Webpage template

 

Dilations.gsp

 

Thurs, Nov 30

Similar Figures--uses the file Similarity.gsp

Exploring the Pythagorean Theorem—uses file Pythagoras.gsp

Tues, Dec 5

Concept sheet for final exam