Easter Analytic Geometry Review Activity

This is an Easter review activity where students will answer analytic geometry questions and collect eggs on the Smartboard. (This is the Easter version to a Halloween activity post. If teaching in the spring this context makes more sense otherwise in the fall use the Halloween activity instead at this link - they are the same questions in both activities)

MPM1D

• determine, through investigation, the characteristics that distinguish the equation of a straight line from the equations of nonlinear relations
• identify, through investigation, the equation of a line in any of the forms y = mx + b,             Ax + By + C = 0, x = a, y = b
• express the equation of a line in the form y = mx + b, given the form Ax + By + C = 0
• determine, through investigation, various formulas for the slope of a line segment or line and use the formulas to determine the slope of a line segment or a line
• identify, through investigation with technology, the geometric significance of m and b in the equation y = mx + b
• identify, through investigation, properties of the slopes of lines and line segments
• graph lines by hand, using a variety of techniques
• determine the equation of a line from information about the line
• describe the meaning of the slope and y-intercept for a linear relation arising from a realistic situation
• construct tables of values, graphs, and equations, using a variety of tools to represent linear relations derived from descriptions of realistic situations

• 51 plastic Easter eggs (find at a Dollar store)
• 2 Easter baskets (find at a Dollar store)
• analytic geometry questions
• solution handout
• Smartboard
• Smart Notebook file with score board
• whiteboard and markers (optional)
• Easter decorations (optional)
• prizes for winning team (optional)

1. Print questions in colour.  Cut out questions and place one in each of the 51 eggs.
2. Place eggs in an Easter basket.
3. Bring up the scoreboard on the smartboard.  (Could create your own scoreboard if a smartboard is not available)
4. Place students is groups and give each student a whiteboard and marker.
5. Have each group choose an Easter basket from the scoreboard.
6. One student from the group will come up and choose an egg.  They will bring it back to their group where all members will answer the question inside.
7. One person will then come and check their answer with the teacher.
8. The teacher will check off that the group has answered that question.  
9. The student will then drag an egg to their Easter basket on the smartboard.  Based on difficulty, questions with no eggs on the card students collect 1 egg, questions with  2  eggs on the card students collect 2 eggs and the same with 3 eggs.
10. Have students place the question back in the egg and choose another one.  (Answered questions with egg should be put in a separate basket and put back in circulation when eggs get low.)
11. The group who collects the most eggs will win.  

Note:  There are some special cards that students will find. I call these the golden eggs (they are not always in yellow eggs but the card is yellow).

To see the activity in action with an applied class (with proportional reasoning), go to this post (ie it runs the same way but with different questions) 

• Analytic Geometry Egg Hunt questions (pdf) (doc)
• Analytic Geometry Egg Hunt solutions (pdf) (doc)
• Egg Hunt scoreboard (Smart Notebook file) (not)

Did you use this activity? Do you have a way to make it better? If so tell us in the comment section. Thanks

Halloween Analytic Geometry Review Activity

This is a Halloween review activity where students will answer analytic geometry questions and collect candy on the Smartboard.  (This is the Halloween version to an Easter activity post. If teaching in the fall this context makes more sense otherwise in the spring use the Easter activity instead at this link - they are the same questions in both activities)

 MPM1D

• determine, through investigation, the characteristics that distinguish the equation of a straight line from the equations of nonlinear relations
• identify, through investigation, the equation of a line in any of the forms y = mx + b,             Ax + By + C = 0, x = a, y = b
• express the equation of a line in the form y = mx + b, given the form Ax + By + C = 0
• determine, through investigation, various formulas for the slope of a line segment or line and use the formulas to determine the slope of a line segment or a line
• identify, through investigation with technology, the geometric significance of m and b in the equation y = mx + b
• identify, through investigation, properties of the slopes of lines and line segments
• graph lines by hand, using a variety of techniques
• determine the equation of a line from information about the line
• describe the meaning of the slope and y-intercept for a linear relation arising from a realistic situation
• construct tables of values, graphs, and equations, using a variety of tools to represent linear relations derived from descriptions of realistic situations

• 49 Halloween containers (find at a Dollar store)
• analytic geometry questions
• solution handout
• Smartboard
• Smart Notebook file with score board
• whiteboard and markers (optional)
• Halloween decorations (optional)
• prizes for winning team (optional)

1. Cut out questions and place one in each of the 49 containers.
2. Spread out containers on a table and add some Halloween decorations (optional).
3. Bring up the scoreboard on the smartboard.  (Could create your own scoreboard if a smartboard is not available)
4. Place students is groups and give each student a whiteboard and marker.
5. Have each group choose a Halloween bag from the scoreboard.
6. One student from the group will come up and choose a container.  They will bring it back to their group where all members will answer the question inside.
   
7. One person will then come and check their answer with the teacher.
8. The teacher will check off that the group has answered that question.  
9. The student will then drag a candy to their bag on the smartboard.  Questions with no pumpkins are worth 1 candy, questions with 2 pumpkins are worth 2 candies and questions with 3 pumpkins are worth 3 candies.
10. Have students place the question back in the container and choose another one.  (Answered questions with container should be put to the side and put back in circulation when containers get low.)
11. The group who collects the most candy will win.  

 Note:  There are some special cards that students will find. Tap bags 1, 3, 6 or 8 on the Smartboard to play Halloween music.

To see the activity in action with an applied class (with proportional reasoning), go to this post (ie it runs the same way but with different questions) 

• Analytic Geometry Halloween questions (pdf) (doc)
• Analytic Geometry Halloween solutions (pdf) (doc)
• Halloween scoreboard (Smart Notebook file) (not)

Did you use this activity? Do you have a way to make it better? If so tell us in the comment section. Thanks

Geometer's Sketchpad - Practice Midpoint of a Line Segment

When using the Geometer's Sketchpad it is often better to "start from sketch, not from scratch". That is, give students a premade sketch rather having them build something from nothing (as many textbooks would have you do). 
In this activity students can download a GSP sketch that allows them to practice determining the midpoint of a line segment on the first page (this part could also be used to check answers) and then to be quizzed with randomly generated sets of points on the second page.

• MPM2D: B2.1 - develop the formula for the midpoint of a line segment, and use this formula to solve problems

• All that is needed are the electronic downloads (below)
• Note that this really works well on an iPad using the Sketchpad Explorer App (which is free)
• You can also use this on any web based computer (or Chromebook) with this Web sketch

Watch the video below to see how to use the sketch. The first page can be used for discovery or for checking problems and the second page can be used for quizzing students as it will generate an infinite number of random segments to find the midpoint of.

• MidtermPractice.gsp (iPad/V5) (V4)
• Web sketch here
• For more sketches like this go to my full page

Did you use this activity? Do you have a way to make it better? If so tell us in the comment section. Thanks

Geometer's Sketchpad - Practice Distance Between Points

When using the Geometer's Sketchpad it is often better to "start from sketch, not from scratch". That is, give students a premade sketch rather having them build something from nothing (as many textbooks would have you do). In this activity students can download a GSP sketch that allows them to practice determining the distance between two points (this part could also be used to check answers) and then to be quizzed with randomly generated sets of points.

• MPM2D - develop the formula for the length of a line segment, and use this formula to solve problems (e.g., determine the lengths of the line segments joining the midpoints of the sides of a triangle, given the coordinates of the vertices of the triangle, and verify using dynamic geometry software);

• All that is needed are the electronic downloads
• Note that this really works well on an iPad using the Sketchpad Explorer App (which is free)
• You can also use this on any web based computer (or Chromebook) with this Web sketch

Watch the video below to see how to use the sketch. The first page can be used for discovery or for checking problems and the second page can be used for quizzing students as it will generate an infinite number of random points to find the distance between.

• DistancePractice.gsp (iPad/V5) (V4)
• Web sketch here
• For more sketches like this go to my full page

Did you use this activity? Do you have a way to make it better? If so tell us in the comment section. Thanks

Sort Students into Groups using Linear Representations

In this activities students are each given one card. The card will either have a graph, table of values or equation of a linear relation. Their job is to find the two other students who have the other two representations of the same linear relationship. This shouldn't take too long and could be repeated every couple of days to solidify conversion between representations

MPM1D, MFM2P  - 

• graph lines by hand, using a variety of techniques
• identify, through investigation with technology, the geometric significance of m and b in the equation y = mx + b

• Download the cards and cut them out (you may want to laminate them)

1. Shuffle the cards and distribute one per student. Note that there are 11 sets of 3 cards so you may want to remove sets to more closely match your student population.
2. Students will find the other people who have the same linear relationship

• GraphTableLineMatch (doc) (pdf)

Did you use this activity? Do you have a way to make it better? If so tell us in the comment section. Thanks