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ERIC Number: EJ951259
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-May
Pages: 14
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Can a Kite Be a Triangle? Bidirectional Discourse and Student Inquiry in a Middle School Interactive Geometric Lesson
Yu, Paul Woo Dong; Tawfeeq, Dante A.
New England Mathematics Journal, v43 p7-20 May 2011
While the study of geometry in some shape or form has existed for many millennia, it is within the past twenty years that a shift has occurred in how geometry may be learned through computer-based interactive geometric software. Software programs like The Geometer's Sketchpad[TM], Cabri[TM], and GeoGebra[TM] allow users to construct interactive representations of points, lines, and circles. These geometric objects are interactive in that they may be resized and shifted around onscreen through clicking and dragging actions. Moreover, interactive geometric software in the K-12 mathematics curriculum has been used at the elementary level, middle school level, and the high school level. One such geometry curriculum, Shape Makers, uses interactive geometric objects in the form of various quadrilaterals to help middle school students develop a dynamic understanding of quadrilateral properties and relationships. In this curriculum, students are led through a series of activities in which they explore visual, property-based, and relational characteristics of various quadrilaterals by dragging the shape makers' vertices to resize and morph the onscreen figures. In this article, the authors share a classroom episode in which middle school students explore the nature of mathematical definitions through an unintended degenerate case of the Kite Maker, which is in the form of a triangle. (Contains 6 figures, 1 table and 1 note.)
Association of Teachers of Mathematics in New England. Web site: http://www.atmne.net
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education; Middle Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A