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BioBeverly S. Harris is a Chicago Public Schools math teacher currently teaching geometry at Carver Military Academy. She is a creative math teacher who enjoys using hands-on activities, unusual artifacts, rhymes and games to increase her students' mathematical knowledge and confidence. Beverly has degrees in Mathematics and Curriculum & Instruction from St. Xavier University.
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Amazing Teaching Moment |
This activity was presented in the autumn to coincide with the beautiful tapestry of the season and it allowed students an opportunity to practice finding the area of irregular shapes. Students were asked to bring a fallen leaf or I provided several leaves for them to choose from. Students were asked to trace the leaf and dissect it (using a straightedge) into 10 basic shapes (i.e. rectangles, squares, triangles). Depending on the size of the leaf, a piece of patty paper was taped over the leaf’s copy which allowed for the students to trace and dissect the leaf easier. If the leaf copy was larger than the patty paper, students simply turned the copy over and traced/dissected the leaf on the backside of the paper. Students then found the area of each shape by measuring the appropriate dimensions in centimeters. They found the areas using the appropriate formulas for each shape and estimated the area of the entire leaf by adding them all together.
This lesson was powerful because it combined a basic geometric concept of finding the area of irregular shapes with an unusual item: a leaf. It granted the students a more hands-on opportunity to find the area of an irregular shape that was not a traditional problem from their textbooks, but an opportunity to find the area of something they see every day. Not only did the students seem to be amazed at the different ways in which they could dissect their own leaves, but they seemed equally fascinated with observing the outcomes of their friends’ and classmates’ projects as well. It was also rewarding to for me to observe how much effort, precision and attention to detail students placed upon this project and how it seemed to help etch in their minds how they could find the area of anything. Hashtags: #findingarea, #areamodels, #areaformulas, #areaofshapes, #areaofirregularshapes, #mathinnature, #handsonlearning, #decomposegeometry, #usingmodels, #geometry, #gradelevel, #math, #highschool |