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.