On Tuesday, the intermediate unit was visited by Jane Keiser, a professor of Mathematics at Miami University.
During her visit she taught the students about angles and angle measurement, and guided the kids through a wonderful activity. Each child made wax paper “wedges” (folding the paper into 16 sections- in half 4 times). They measured the angles on a paper to see how many wedges were in each angle, and then they measured the angles on paper triangles she passed out to everyone. They realized that the sum of all of the interior angles of a triangle was 8 wedges. Then the students tore the angles off of each triangle and found they could be placed “nose-to-nose” or “vertex-to-vertex” to make a flat plane.
She then guided the conversation to degrees instead of wedges, and the students began to convert all of their measurements. (8 wedges therefore = 180 degrees) The day finished with an activity where the students made “blossoms” out of wooden geometric shapes. They placed the same angles all together at the vertices, and then knowing that the sum of them all was 360 degrees, the students then calculated the measurements for the angles of the shapes in the blossom.
McGuffey teachers will be building on what the kids learned in the coming weeks with additional activities and games. Thank you Ms. Keiser for sharing your knowledge with us!