Discovering Parallelograms

2.21.13

Geometry On Level

Objective: To discover the properties of parallelograms, rectangles, rhombi and squares using geometer’s sketchpad and to fill out the Quadrilateral “family tree” using Prezi.

Differentiation: Students were able to open the sketchpad files and play with the shapes and the data to discover the properties of parallelograms. Each student pair spent however long they needed with the sketchpad file to feel acquainted with the properties.

Programs/Software Used:

                                      iPads: used the geometer’s sketchpad explorer app and the prezi viewer app

                                      ThinkPads: none

Reflection: As much as I love when students “discover” the lesson instead of me spoon feeding it to them, many of the students walked in to class knowing most of the parallelogram properties. Therefore they flew through the discovery faster than I thought. I had hoped they would spend more time dragging the shapes around to see if the property holds true but many just wrote the property down and moved on. Nevertheless it was still more effective than me showing the whole class the sketchpad file on the smart board. Students seemed to really like taking notes from the prezi (just something different) rather than me present them on the smart board. They filled out their whole family tree and will spend the rest of the unit looking into what those properties really mean.

Apple/Android  Pro/Con: iPads performed really well for both parts of this lesson. Androids do not have the sketch explorer app.