Right Triangle Trig: Scavenger Hunt

SOHCAHTOA... so many ways to teach our students to remember this. Personally, I've never been comfortable with the "hippie" story and I know there are others (here is a site dedicated to mnemonics) out there like this story of the Legend. But luckily, RJ and I teach Pre-Calculus so the kiddos come to us (hopefully) already knowing the basics - we get to take their knowledge and turn it into application!

For this activity, we pulled together 12 of our favorite right triangle application problems - some we made up and others have been around for ages. We put answers on one side and the questions on the other. We even put the questions upside-down so that the students could just flip the card up and not have to take it off the wall. The cherubs are in groups of 3 and begin at any numbered card. They flip the card, complete the task, and then find the numbered card with that answer. Repeat.

As with all classroom scavenger hunts, there are many pros!

Students are engaged
Students are taking control of their learning
Students get immediate feedback since they know right away if they have a correct (or incorrect) answer
Student-led discourse is way more meaningful than teacher-led discussion
Teachers get their steps in walking around

Of course there are drawbacks...

Creating activities can be time consuming
Teachers cannot just do one activity a year and expect the students to handle themselves appropriately
It was very confusing trying to make upside-down copies on the back. I'm embarrassed to admit that it took several trials/prints.

Here is a copy of our Triangle Trig Scavenger Hunt. Enjoy!

~SSB and RJ

Comments

Exponential Growth & Decay Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Hunts are always fun (and easy to grade). This particular one is all about applications of exponential growth & decay. My students seem to understand this topic really well, but I still wanted to provide more practice. When I did this hunt originally, I created the cards with the answer on the front and the question on the back. Once I figured out how to copy and make it work, it was great because I could use the cards over and over again. However, they started looking old, and I lost some of the cards. So t his year, I placed the answer and question on the front. It made it so much easier to copy! If you would like to try this in your class, here is a copy ! I included the solutions as well. UPDATE: I created this activity and transformed into a remote version. Remote Version: SE Scavenger Hunt TE Scavenger Hunt ~RJ

Modeling Exponential Growth (M&M Activity)

I could present an application problem on the board, have the students plug into their calculator and find the exponential regression equation. However, I think that visualizing the growth is more effective, and allows students to see how fast something like cancer cells can grow. This activity provides a hands on experience with M&Ms while modeling real world concepts. I found this activity here , but created my own (slightly different) version. I only had enough time for exponential growth, so I eliminated the decay portion. I really like how students compare the equation that they found to the calculator's regression model. This activity also causes students to discuss each component of the equation, which I think is very important in AFM. Additionally, this brings up a great discussion regarding cancer cells. Do all cancer cells grow exponentially? If time allows, I like for students to do some research (using their phones) to aid with this conversation....

Limit Project

Well...we just got back into school after being out for almost 3 weeks because of hurricane Florence. Our school is okay, but there are many people out there suffering from losing so much. :( I had planned on a project for Calculus before the storm but will have to put that aside until next year! We have just lost too much time. However, I wanted to still share the project with you guys in case you would like to try it or something similar to it. I like to make projects a unique experience. I hate when all students do the same thing. #1 - students can and WILL copy. #2 - It's boring to grade! The idea of this project is floating somewhere on the web. I honestly can't remember where I got the idea. But I have altered it over the years to meet the needs of my students. It has gone through many alterations, and I will continue to change things. So it is not perfect! The gist - students find a recipe that has at least 5 ingredients. (The recipe ...

Girl Math

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