Standards and Benchmarks Covered in this Lesson

          II,3,1: Select and use appropriate tools; make accurate measurements using both metric and common units, and measure angles in degrees and radians.

          II,3,5: Use proportional reasoning and indirect measurements including applications of trigonometric ratios, to measure inaccessible distances and to determine derived measures such as density.

Introduction

1)     Anticipatory Set: Class discussion on hiking.  Work in concepts of height above sea level and percent of oxygen in the air.

2)     Objectives: -After measuring the length of the sides of various triangles, students will be taught how to use the Pythagorean Theorem.  Students will then be able to find the third side of a right triangle given the lengths of two sides.

   -After completing the investigation, students will also be able to find the length of the side of a triangle given an angle measure and the length of one of the sides of a triangle.

Investigation

3)     Students will begin by measuring the length of the sides of multiple triangles.  As a class we will develop a relationship between the legs of the triangle and the hypotenuse (Pythagorean Theorem).  Students will then continue

v    Develop the math

v    Do a couple examples

v    Let students begin working on the investigation

Conclusion

v    What do we need to know before we use the Pythagorean Theorem?

v    Is there anything else we can do to find the lengths of the sides of a triangle?

v    What do we do with that Soh Cah Toa thing we learned? When do we use that?