Students learn about geometric relationships by solving real mini putt examples on paper and then using putters and golf balls to experiment with the teacher’s pre-made mini put hole(s) framed by 2 x 4s, comparing their calculated (theoretical) results to real-world results. To “solve the holes,” they find the reflections of angles and then solve for those angles. They do this for 1-, 2- and 3-banked hole-in-one shots. Next, students apply their newly learned skills to design, solve and build their own mini putt holes, also made of 2 x 4s and steel corners.

Students learn about common geometry tools and then learn to use protractors (and Miras, if available) to create and measure angles and reflections. The lesson begins with a recap of the history and modern-day use of protractors, compasses and mirrors. After seeing some class practice problems and completing a set of worksheet-prompted problems, students share their methods and work. Through the lesson, students gain an awareness of the pervasive use of angles, and these tools, for design purposes related to engineering and everyday uses. This lesson prepares students to conduct the associated activity in which they “solve the holes” for hole-in-one multiple-banked angle solutions, make their own one-hole mini-golf courses with their own geometry-based problems and solutions, and then compare their “on paper” solutions to real-world results.

Students take on the role of geographers and civil engineers and use a device enabled with the global positioning system (GPS) to locate geocache locations via a number of waypoints. Teams save their data points, upload them to geographic information systems (GIS) software, such as Google Earth, and create scale drawings of their explorations while solving problems of area, perimeter and rates. The activity is unique in its integration of technology for solving mathematical problems and asks students to relate GPS and GIS to engineering.

In this lesson, students will investigate error. As shown in earlier activities from navigation lessons 1 through 3, without an understanding of how errors can affect your position, you cannot navigate well. Introducing accuracy and precision will develop these concepts further. Also, students will learn how computers can help in navigation. Often, the calculations needed to navigate accurately are time consuming and complex. By using the power of computers to do calculations and repetitive tasks, one can quickly see how changing parameters likes angles and distances and introducing errors will affect their overall result.

In Module 5, students consider part–whole relationships through a geometric lens. The module opens with students identifying the defining parts, or attributes, of two- and three-dimensional shapes, building on their kindergarten experiences of sorting, analyzing, comparing, and creating various two- and three-dimensional shapes and objects. Students combine shapes to create a new whole: a composite shape. They also relate geometric figures to equal parts and name the parts as halves and fourths. The module closes with students applying their understanding of halves to tell time to the hour and half hour.

This 40-day final module of the year offers students intensive practice with word problems, as well as hands-on investigation experiences with geometry and perimeter.  The module begins with solving one- and two-step word problems based on a variety of topics studied throughout the year, using all four operations.  Next students explore geometry.  Students tessellate to bridge geometry experience with the study of perimeter.  Line plots, familiar from Module 6, help students draw conclusions about perimeter and area measurements.  Students solve word problems involving area and perimeter using all four operations.  The module concludes with a set of engaging lessons that briefly review the fundamental Grade 3 concepts of fractions, multiplication, and division.

This 20-day module introduces points, lines, line segments, rays, and angles, as well as the relationships between them. Students construct, recognize, and define these geometric objects before using their new knowledge and understanding to classify figures and solve problems. With angle measure playing a key role in their work throughout the module, students learn how to create and measure angles, as well as create and solve equations to find unknown angle measures. In these problems, where the unknown angle is represented by a letter, students explore both measuring the unknown angle with a protractor and reasoning through the solving of an equation. Through decomposition and composition activities as well as an exploration of symmetry, students recognize specific attributes present in two-dimensional figures. They further develop their understanding of these attributes as they classify two-dimensional figures based on them.

In this 25-day module, students work with two- and three-dimensional figures.  Volume is introduced to students through concrete exploration of cubic units and culminates with the development of the volume formula for right rectangular prisms.  The second half of the module turns to extending students’ understanding of two-dimensional figures.  Students combine prior knowledge of area with newly acquired knowledge of fraction multiplication to determine the area of rectangular figures with fractional side lengths.  They then engage in hands-on construction of two-dimensional shapes, developing a foundation for classifying the shapes by reasoning about their attributes.  This module fills a gap between Grade 4’s work with two-dimensional figures and Grade 6’s work with volume and area.

In this 40-day module, students develop a coordinate system for the first quadrant of the coordinate plane and use it to solve problems.  Students use the familiar number line as an introduction to the idea of a coordinate, and they construct two perpendicular number lines to create a coordinate system on the plane.  Students see that just as points on the line can be located by their distance from 0, the plane’s coordinate system can be used to locate and plot points using two coordinates.  They then use the coordinate system to explore relationships between points, ordered pairs, patterns, lines and, more abstractly, the rules that generate them.  This study culminates in an exploration of the coordinate plane in real world applications.

In this module, students utilize their previous experiences in order to understand and develop formulas for area, volume, and surface area.  Students use composition and decomposition to determine the area of triangles, quadrilaterals, and other polygons.  Extending skills from Module 3 where they used coordinates and absolute value to find distances between points on a coordinate plane, students determine distance, perimeter, and area on the coordinate plane in real-world contexts.  Next in the module comes real-life application of the volume formula where students extend the notion that volume is additive and find the volume of composite solid figures.  They apply volume formulas and use their previous experience with solving equations to find missing volumes and missing dimensions.  The final topic includes deconstructing the faces of solid figures to determine surface area.  To wrap up the module, students apply the surface area formula to real-life contexts and distinguish between the need to find surface area or volume within contextual situations.

In Module 6, students delve further into several geometry topics they have been developing over the years.  Grade 7 presents some of these topics, (e.g., angles, area, surface area, and volume) in the most challenging form students have experienced yet.  Module 6 assumes students understand the basics.  The goal is to build a fluency in these difficult problems.  The remaining topics, (i.e., working on constructing triangles and taking slices (or cross-sections) of three-dimensional figures) are new to students.

In this module, students learn about translations, reflections, and rotations in the plane and, more importantly, how to use them to precisely define the concept of congruence. Throughout Topic A, on the definitions and properties of the basic rigid motions, students verify experimentally their basic properties and, when feasible, deepen their understanding of these properties using reasoning. All the lessons of Topic B demonstrate to students the ability to sequence various combinations of rigid motions while maintaining the basic properties of individual rigid motions. Students learn that congruence is just a sequence of basic rigid motions in Topic C, and Topic D begins the learning of Pythagorean Theorem.

In Module 3, students learn about dilation and similarity and apply that knowledge to a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem based on the Angle-Angle criterion for similar triangles.  The module begins with the definition of dilation, properties of dilations, and compositions of dilations.  One overarching goal of this module is to replace the common idea of “same shape, different sizes” with a definition of similarity that can be applied to geometric shapes that are not polygons, such as ellipses and circles.

In the first topic of this 15 day module, students learn the concept of a function and why functions are necessary for describing geometric concepts and occurrences in everyday life.  Once a formal definition of a function is provided, students then consider functions of discrete and continuous rates and understand the difference between the two.  Students apply their knowledge of linear equations and their graphs from Module 4 to graphs of linear functions.  Students inspect the rate of change of linear functions and conclude that the rate of change is the slope of the graph of a line.  They learn to interpret the equation y=mx+b as defining a linear function whose graph is a line.  Students compare linear functions and their graphs and gain experience with non-linear functions as well.  In the second and final topic of this module, students extend what they learned in Grade 7 about how to solve real-world and mathematical problems related to volume from simple solids to include problems that require the formulas for cones, cylinders, and spheres.

Module 7 begins with work related to the Pythagorean Theorem and right triangles.  Before the lessons of this module are presented to students, it is important that the lessons in Modules 2 and 3 related to the Pythagorean Theorem are taught (M2:  Lessons 15 and 16, M3:  Lessons 13 and 14).  In Modules 2 and 3, students used the Pythagorean Theorem to determine the unknown length of a right triangle.  In cases where the side length was an integer, students computed the length.  When the side length was not an integer, students left the answer in the form of x2=c, where c was not a perfect square number.  Those solutions are revisited and are the motivation for learning about square roots and irrational numbers in general.

Module 2 explores two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes.  Students learn about flat and solid shapes independently as well as how they are related to each other and to shapes in their environment.  Students begin to use position words when referring to and moving shapes.  Students learn to use their words to distinguish between examples and non-examples of flat and solid shapes.

Kindergarten comes to a close with another opportunity for students to explore geometry in Module 6. Throughout the year, students have built an intuitive understanding of two- and three-dimensional figures by examining exemplars, variants, and non-examples. They have used geometry as a context for exploring numerals as well as comparing attributes and quantities. To wrap up the year, students further develop their spatial reasoning skills and begin laying the groundwork for an understanding of area through composition of geometric figures.

Students see that geometric shapes can be found in all sorts of structures as they explore the history of the Roman Empire with a focus on how engineers 2000 years ago laid the groundwork for many structures seen today. Through a short online video, brief lecture material and their own online research directed by worksheet questions, students discover how the Romans invented a structure known today as the Roman arch that enabled them to build architecture never before seen by humankind, including the amazing aqueducts. Students calculate the slope and its total drop and angle over its entire distance for an example aqueduct. Completing this lesson prepares students for the associated activity in which teams build and test model aqueducts that meet specific constraints. This lesson serves as an introduction to many other geometry—and engineering-related lessons—including statics and trusses, scale modeling, and trigonometry.

Engineers create and use new materials, as well as new combinations of existing materials to design innovative new products and technologies—all based upon the chemical and physical properties of given substances. In this activity, students act as materials engineers as they learn about and use chemical and physical properties including tessellated geometric designs and shape to build better smartphone cases. Guided by the steps of the engineering design process, they analyze various materials and substances for their properties, design/test/improve a prototype model, and create a dot plot of their prototype testing results.

Students explore in detail how the Romans built aqueducts using arches—and the geometry involved in doing so. Building on what they learned in the associated lesson about how innovative Roman arches enabled the creation of magnificent structures such as aqueducts, students use trigonometry to complete worksheet problem calculations to determine semicircular arch construction details using trapezoidal-shaped and cube-shaped blocks. Then student groups use hot glue and half-inch wooden cube blocks to build model aqueducts, doing all the calculations to design and build the arches necessary to support a water-carrying channel over a three-foot span. They calculate the slope of the small-sized aqueduct based on what was typical for Roman aqueducts at the time, aiming to construct the ideal slope over a specified distance in order to achieve a water flow that is not spilling over or stagnant. They test their model aqueducts with water and then reflect on their performance.