8th Grade Geometricians are learning basic trigonometry functions and applying them to a two-day exploration on campus: figure out the height of the tall redwood tree in front of the lunch line. After practicing sine, cosine, and tangent problems on paper, students formed small groups and were given a range of tools: clinometers, long tape measures, mirrors, calculators, and a camera. Their teacher offered the provocation, “students in past years have gotten within two feet,” and “I’ll also tell you that it’s possible to find the answer using only the mirror and tape measure.”
“It’s possible to find the answer using only the mirror and tape measure.”
Hmmm.
Students wondered, “Are we getting a learning based grade or an accuracy based grade?”
The project requires students to produce a poster that persuades readers to your answer, that has clear diagrams with labeled measurements, that explains your strategy, that shares evidence your measure is correct (including examples of how you might achieve this, like taking the measurement more than once, using more than one strategy, consulting with other groups), plus one possible “bonus point” to the group with most accurate answer that is clearly explained. How will we check? Mr Selak will take a drone video slowly climbing the tree so we can watch the altimeter to get a really accurate final reading to compare to our measurements.
Off to the races! Math can be both challenging and a lot of fun.