Apr 10 2008
Geometer’s sketchpad evaluation – “Chords of a circle”
“Chords of a circle” This lesson would be suitable for the NSW syllabus for arc and chords and to see the relationship between chord lengths and angles. The benefit of using the Geometer’s sketchpad software in this lesson is that resizing of the circle, chords and angles are all done with the movement of the mouse. It is an easy way for students to visualise the relationships without having to draw a whole heap of diagrams. A little lenghy to originally set up but it wouldn’t be a problem if student were familiar with the program. Would be easier if students used a printed version to follow to set up the sketch. A big tick for visual learners.
How could the lesson be improved?
Are the instructions for the lesson clear?
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One of the things we have been struggling with is when do you give the students the bulk of the diagram already completed so that they can focus on the mathematical relationships and when do you have them construct the diagram from scratch.
I might be tempted to give them a diagram largely completed here and then have another investigation to do from scratch as an extension.