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GEOMETRY: THE BIG PICTURE
In almost every math textbook, the geometry chapter is normally toward the end of the book. It is also an "If we have time" chapter. I love geometry and I learned at the University of Michigan-Dearborn that most students fear it. With the fear being known, my cooperating teacher and I decided to make this fear turn into confidence and fun. If the students feared geometry coming into fourth grade, our mission was to make sure that they left fourth grade thinking that geometry was interesting and exciting. We knew that the students love and enjoy technology, so we believed that integrating technology into our geometry unit was the perfect way for the students to succeed. We decided to incorporate technology into our geometry unit so that way the students would conquer their fears and associate success, fun, and learning with geometry. Our goal was to teach geometry in the most entertaining way possible by using information from the new math textbook, the old math textbook, and then finally incorporating technology.
Lesson One: Polygon Playgrounds
In this lesson the students used digital cameras, Microsoft Photo Editor, and Microsoft PowerPoint. The students were placed into groups and took pictures of polygons with digital cameras outside on the playground. They had previously learned about polygons and this lesson reinforced that polygons are found everywhere in the world, including the playground they play on everyday. The students then chose the pictures of the polygons they liked and edited them using the camera editing software. As a class, the students created PowerPoint presentations that included the digital polygon pictures, clipart polygon pictures, and definitions of each polygon.
In this lesson, the students used a digital camera, Microsoft Word, and inserted clipart pictures. The students wrote a diamante poem about a shape of their choice. The students then typed their poems using Microsoft Word and inserted clipart pictures that were relevant to their shape. The students were able to the change the style of the font, the size of the font, and they were able to change the colors of their poem.
Lesson Three: Symmetric
Smiles
In this lesson the students used digital cameras, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Photo Editor. The students took close-up pictures of each others' faces using digital cameras. Then using Microsoft Photo Editor, the students cut their faces down the middle and copied the remaining half of their face. They repeated this procedure twice, for both the right and left side of their face. In Microsoft Word, the students pasted the remaining half of their face and submerged the right sides of their face together and repeated the process for the left sides of their face. In the end, each student ended up with their original face, their right sided face, and their left sided face. The students were clearly able to see that their face is not symmetrical.
In this lesson, students used a different type of technology called Hot Dots. Hot Dots are sticky dots that are pre-set as either hot or cold. We made up flash cards with various geometry questions and then provided four answers. Next to each answer was either a cold dot if the answer was wrong, or a hot dot if the answer was right. Students would read each question and press the Hot Dots pen onto the answer they thought was correct. If the students chose the correct answer the pen would make a happy, cheery noise. However, if the students chose the wrong answer the Hot Dots pen would make a very negative noise. Students were assessed independently in this lesson.
*To see where to purchase Hot Dots click here for information
Lesson Five: Geometry Jeopardy
In this lesson the students used Microsoft PowerPoint to play the game Jeopardy. We used the LCD projector to project the game board onto the wall in the classroom. We saved this lesson last because this was a review over all the geometric ideas and concepts that were taught in this unit. We created a Jeopardy game in Microsoft PowerPoint, that was similar to the Jeopardy game on television. The students were split up into teams and the object of the game was to answer as many questions right as possible, and to have the highest amount of points at the end of the game. Students were assessed collaboratively on how well their team worked together to come up with the correct answers..