Geometry Unit

I am so excited about what has come out of this unit. I will continue to teach Geometry this way in the future. The boys have really immersed themselves in geometry and want to learn more. They could not believe that we have only touched the surface of what geometry is all about. They keep wanting to learn more. The classes were run by what questions the boys wanted to learn about and the tests were based on their questions.

As we got into the unit and started to learn about the formulas the boys were able to figure out some of the formulas because of the definitions that they have learned. For example, I had them figure out the area of a triangle on their own. They knew that a triangle was half of a parallelogram and the formula for a parallelogram was base x height. Knowing this information they were able to come up with the formula for a triangle and explain why. ((base x height)/2) This was exciting for them. They also figured out that circumference has two different formulas and can explain why. They knew that a diameter was made up of two radii.

The boys also started to ask questions about volume and why the formula changed depending on the bases of the 3D object. When we got into these questions the boys realized that you can write volume as Area of the base x Height of the whole object. This then lead into what happens if you have something inside the 3D object taking up space in the object.

This lead to the questions, "What does a 4D shape look like?" and "Do they exist?" These question lead into some great debates. The boy continue to research and ask questions.