Table of Contents

Tom Scavo's Math Lessons || Tom's home page

Introduction       Materials       Length       Area       Pick's Theorem           Dot Paper       Epilogue

Lessons       Lines       Squares       Rectangles       Parallelograms       Right Triangles       Bibliography

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To the teacher:

This unit deals with the length and area of two-dimensional geometric figures using the geoboard as a pedagogical device. Even though your students may have already seen some of this material, it is still likely that many of them have only a superficial understanding of length and area. It's quite amazing, for example, how many students have trouble distinguishing between perimeter and area - even secondary students confuse the two.

A typical student's understanding of units is even more problematic. Ask your students to describe a square inch, for example. It's unfortunate, but true, that many write "in²" without really understanding what it means. But with a geoboard, a student can see the area of a rectangle, say, and will readily count the square units making up such a geometric figure. Indeed, "square unit" takes on a whole new meaning with the geoboard.

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The Math Forum * * Tom Scavo * * 3 August 1997

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