Content Area: Math

 

Index: 4.2A Grade 7 CPI 1

 

Standard: 4.2 - Geometry and Measurement

 

Strand: A - Geometric Properties

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 1 -  The student will understand and apply properties of polygons.

·        Quadrilaterals, including squares, rectangles, parallelograms, trapezoids, rhombi

·        Regular polygons

 

Grade: 7

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        Students use toothpicks to construct as many different types of triangles as possible, where each side of the triangles consists of between one and five toothpicks. They record their findings in a table, showing how many triangles are scalene, isosceles, equilateral, right, and obtuse. They also indicate which combinations of sides are impossible.

 

·        Students sort collections of quadrilaterals according to the number of lines of symmetry that each has.

 

·        Students play clue games designed to help them distinguish between necessary and sufficient conditions in describing a shape. For example: If you want to challenge your friend to identify a square by giving a set of clues, which minimum set of clues would you select from the list below? Explain your selection. Is it possible to select a different minimum set of clues? Explain. - 4 right angles - all angles are 90 degrees - 4 sides - all sides of equal length - all angles congruent - opposite angles congruent - opposite sides parallel - simple closed curve

 

·        Open ended assessment items like those used on the Early Warning Test can always be used to provoke discussion and classroom activity. One of the sample items in the New Jersey Department of Education's Mathematics Instructional Guide (MG3) shows several figures and asks which of them can be put together to form a square. The developmental and extension activities provided there offer good suggestions for manipulative and transformation tasks.

 

·        Students work through the A Sure Thing !? lesson that is described in the Introduction to this Framework. They investigate the relationship among the measures of the interior angles of a triangle by cutting out arbitrary triangles, tearing them into three pieces so that each corner is intact, and fitting the corners around a single point to make a straight angle.

 

·        Additional Framework Activities