Law of Sines: The Ambiguous Case

Everyone's favorite lesson... Law of Sines and the Ambiguous Case! No teacher ever dreads this, right? I mean, the students pick it up immediately. Okay, in all seriousness, our kiddos may struggle with this in the beginning so we feel it's important to allow them to create each scenario of the ambiguous case using this hands-on activity.

Clearly, this is not an original activity (I stole a version decades ago - no clue from where). However, we have updated it to work with our particular students and our personalities. If you are interested in a copy, just click here.

In this version of the Ambiguous Case activity, we have students using dry erase markers on their desks. For some reason, this is pretty exciting for them - I guess they have been reprimanded in the past for writing on desks... huh. My philosophy? As long as they clean it before they leave, what does it matter? Of course, I provide them with disinfecting wipes. They don't even realize they're helping clean the room 😏

Using spaghetti, as opposed to simply drawing a line, for the third side of the triangle is very helpful. I actually buy bulk spaghetti for several different classroom activities - cashiers probable think I have an addiction to Italian food. Anyhoo, the spaghetti allows the students to have mobile units to their triangles so that connections can truly be made to the three possible outcomes of SSA. The downside - our desks are slanted so some students struggle keeping the pieces of spaghetti off the floor.

Taking the time for this activity is well worth it. It has been too long to recall not using some sort of engaging lesson for the Law of Sines - and why wouldn't you want your students engaged and learning?

We hope you enjoy our version of this activity!

~RJ and SSB

Comments

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