The Mystery of the Nameless Triangle

In class on Tuesday this week we got to explore the complex but fascinating world of triangles. The first activity consisted of us all getting a colored piece of paper and ruler and could draw any big triangle we wanted to and then we needed to classify what kind of triangle it was. But we had no words or even their definitions of what to classify the triangle we couldn't just leave it nameless! So, with the mystery needing to be solved, we needed clues and definitions so next came the foldable that was going to solve our dilemma of the nameless triangle.

The "classifying triangles" foldable (picture at the bottom) consisted of the categories angles and sides. First, we addressed the angles side which is put into three separate categories the first being acute, then right, then obtuse. Acute triangles are defined as having all angles measure to less than 90°. Right triangles are defined as having exactly 1 90° angle within the triangle. And lastly, obtuse triangles are defined as having one angle greater than 90° and less than 180°. So with these definitions, we could now define what kind of triangle it was by its angles! But, we still needed the sides to get the full picture and completely define what kind of triangle we had next to us laying on the table waiting to be labeled and to be solved. The sides were put into three categories just like the angles and the categories were equilateral, isosceles, and scalene. An equilateral triangle is defined as all of the sides having the same length. An isosceles triangle is defined as at least 2 sides having the same length. And a scalene triangle is defined as all of the sides have different lengths. After sides and angles were defined, there were extra boxes within the foldable that we were able to draw close to accurate pictures of what each triangle would look like to get a visual aspect and understanding of classifying triangles.

Now we could FINALLY solve the mystery of what we could name our different triangles. Using our newly gained knowledge, and angle finders and protractors, we were able to solve it and name our triangles! My official name for my triangle was an acute scalene triangle.

This lesson was interactive and I could truly apply what I learned automatically and if I still didn't understand I could ask for clarification in class from my fellow peers and professor. I would definitely use a hands-on activity like this in my future classroom because it truly helps you visually see what types of triangles there are and finding the way that works for you to understand and remember the definitions of each classification of a triangle.

Helpful link: 
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/geometry/shapeshoot/triangles_shoot.htm
-This link gets you to an interactive math game called triangles shoot which will give students a better understanding of triangles and their angles and sides.

 (The foldable in its full glory.)

 (What the foldable looks on the outside)









(The triangle that was finally named!)

Goldfish and Probability

At the beginning of the semester in this course, we learned about the topic of probability and all of its aspects and effects on the world through using it in things like experiments and studies. To get a better understanding of how probabilities are determined, their properties, the definitions of mutually exclusive and non-mutually exclusive events, and experimental probabilities vs theoretical probabilities we did the healthy fish activity.

So, with this experiment, we each needed a bag of colored goldfish, and a gold worksheet (pics of both below). The fish in the sample represented healthy and sick fish.  The green fish were sick, and all of the other colored fish were healthy. We all opened our bags and started to separate them into groups by color to answer the questions in the worksheet. On a side note, it was really interesting to see how people decided to organize their fish as some people were very nit-picky as others didn't truly care how things were organized and that just truly shows how diverse every student is. And as a future teacher knowing how each individual student learns determines how you are going to set up your curriculum and teach and guide your students.

Part A of the worksheet addressed the counting and recording of the healthy fish, the sick fish, and the total number of the fish.
Part B is computing the probability of healthy and sick fish in the sample through using the numbers from Part A. Part A was very foundational because of the totals of the fish help you to create possibilities and put things together and start to make and discover predictions and possibilities.
Part C addresses computing the probability of something NOT occurring and asks how both questions relate to each other.
And finally, Part D and Part E put the activity into the context of a word problem or a real-life situation which brings back material and certain subjects from 256 which is proportions and word problems.

This activity truly reached all of the objectives and I came to a better understanding of how probability works. It also was a great activity opener to understanding the vocabulary and how to apply probability to the real world and even how to use this activity in my future classroom.

Helpful link: http://www.mathgametime.com/subject/probability
This link takes you to a website that has games on probability, videos explaining probability, and lesson plans for probability and for grades K-7.

 (Healthy Fish Activity Worksheet)



































(Type of goldfish to buy for the activity)

Crash Course: How to Use a Protractor

Today in class we learned how to correctly and effectively use a protractor. I had used a protractor before when I was taking a geometry class in high school but I never truly understood why we would use it and how to use it correctly until today. We were all given a protractor and a piece of paper with written instructions on how to use the protractor also we were provided with a worksheet to practice measuring angles. The two worksheets are displayed to the left at the bottom. So here are the instructions on how to use a protractor put into the terms that I understood them throughout the lesson today.

Step 1: Place the center point of the protractor on the angle's vertex.
- There is an open hole at the bottom of the protractor and that is where you place the protractor onto the paper. The angle's vertex is where the two ray's meet.

Step 2: Align the protractor with the bottom ray.
- Make sure that the bottom of the protractor lines up with the bottom line (ray)

Step 3: Read the angle's measure by finding where the top ray crosses the protractor.
- It is not always going to be extremely accurate but if you are above or below the actual degree by 2 it is still going to be accurate. Follow the top of the arrow and see what line on the protractor is the most directly pointed towards.

After learning how to properly use a protractor, we were given the opportunity to practice using the worksheet to try it out on our own and then going over the answers at the ending. After learning how to appropriately use a protractor I got a better sense of how they can help measure angles and I came to a better understanding of what acute and obtuse angles look like and how I can measure them! I would definitely apply this lesson to my future classroom because learning about the different angles by using a tool will give students a true visual and be able to physically discover on their own how angles work and how to measure them. I truly enjoyed learning about protractors in class and now feel more confident in my abilities to use it on my own and also share it and teach it to others.

Helpful link: https://www.mathplayground.com/measuringangles.html
This link will take you to a game using an online and interactive protractor to find, measure, and name an angle.