ALEX Lesson Plans

Subject: Mathematics (7 - 12)
Title: Is it a Triangle?
Description: The purpose of this lesson is to help students investigate the relationships of the lengths of the sides of a triangle in order to discover the three triangle inequality theorems. Students will learn how to draw valid conclusions from the information obtained from the activity and apply those conclusions to real world geometry problems. This serves as an introduction into more advanced geometric theorems. This lesson plan was created as a result of the Girls Engaged in Math and Science, GEMS Project, funded by the Malone Family Foundation.

Subject: Mathematics (9 - 12)
Title: Investigation of Special Segments of Triangles
Description: This lesson will enable students to investigate three special segments of triangles in a very concrete way. The students will fold paper triangles to create the segments. This lesson would be a great way for students to explore the properties of the segments and their intersections.

Thinkfinity Lesson Plans

Subject: Mathematics
Title: The Triangle Inequality Add Bookmark
Description: In this reproducible activity, from an Illuminations lesson, students investigate how three sides can be arranged to make both triangles and non-triangles.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Mathematics
Title: IGD: Euler Line Add Bookmark
Description: This student interactive, from Illuminations, helps students understand and investigate Euler lines. Students read a definition and then construct the Euler line of a triangle using the interactive tool. They learn that the Euler line involves three points associated with triangles: the circumcenter, orthocenter, and centroid.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Mathematics
Title: Inequalities for Sides and Angles Add Bookmark
Description: This reproducible activity sheet, from an Illuminations lesson, guides students as they examine the relationship between the locations of sides and angles in a triangle.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Mathematics
Title: Triangle Island Add Bookmark
Description: This student interactive, from an Illuminations lesson, allows students to explore the distances from an interior point of a polygon to its sides and determine the sum of these distances.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Mathematics
Title: Triangle Classification Add Bookmark
Description: This student interactive, from an Illuminations lesson, allows students to turn a segment into a right triangle, an isosceles triangle, and an obtuse triangle.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Mathematics
Title: IGD: Area of a Triangle Add Bookmark
Description: This student interactive, from Illuminations, helps students understand and investigate how to find the area of a triangle by finding a way to make it look like a simpler shap--one whose area formula is known. Students make a copy of the triangle, and then make a parallelogram using the triangle and its copy. Students then determine that the area of the triangle is one-half that of the parallelogram.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6,7,8

Subject: Mathematics
Title: IGD: Median Add Bookmark
Description: This student interactive, from Illuminations, helps students understand and investigate the median of a triangle. Students read a definition and then use the interactive tool to manipulate and explore the properties of triangle medians by changing the shape of a triangle.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Mathematics
Title: Hospital Locator Add Bookmark
Description: In this Illuminations lesson, students begin with a problem in a real-world context to motivate the need to construct circumcenters and then incenters of triangles. Students must make sense of these constructions in terms of bisecting sides and angles. There are links to student interactives and other resources.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Mathematics
Title: IGD: Simson Line Add Bookmark
Description: This student interactive, from Illuminations, helps students understand and investigate a triangle s Simson line, which is the line passing through the feet of the perpendiculars dropped from P to the three sides of a triangle. Students construct the Simson line for a given triangle using the interactive applet.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Mathematics
Title: Isosceles Triangle Investigation Add Bookmark
Description: This student interactive, from an Illuminations lesson, allows students to investigate the relationship between the area of the triangle and the length of its base.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Mathematics
Title: Pieces of Proof Add Bookmark
Description: This lesson offers an intermediate step of putting together the statements and reasons to build a formal geometry proof. There is a leap to be made from understanding postulates and theorems in geometry to writing proofs using them. Students are given the parts of the proof and have to put them in a correct order, like a puzzle, rather than starting with a blank page to generate the statements and reasons themselves.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Mathematics
Title: Half Angle Add Bookmark
Description: This student interactive, from an Illuminations lesson, allows students to find the incenter of a triangle and see a visual explanation of why it occurs where it does.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Mathematics
Title: Inequalities in Triangles Add Bookmark
Description: In this Illuminations lesson, students use pasta to create models of triangles and non-triangles in order to investigate the relationship between the longest side of the triangle and the sum of the other two sides of the triangle. In addition, students measure the sides and angles of a scalene triangle and investigate the relationship between the location of the largest angle and largest side in a triangle. There are also links to online activity sheets.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Mathematics
Title: Hospital Locator Add Bookmark
Description: In this student interactive, from an Illuminations lesson, students act as community planners, trying to place a new medical center equidistant from three cities.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12

Subject: Mathematics
Title: Beyond Triangula Island Add Bookmark
Description: Using this reproducible activity sheet, from an Illuminations lesson, students record their findings as they measure distances from interior points to sides of an equilateral triangle, a square, an octagon and a hexagon. Students answer questions based on their findings.
Thinkfinity Partner: Illuminations
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12