In case you are trying the MARS MAP Classroom Challenges for the first time, it is recommended that you read the Brief Guide for teachers and administrators before you get started.
Before the lesson, students work individually on an assessment task designed to reveal their current understanding and ability to reason using geometrical properties. You then review their responses and create questions for students to consider when improving their work.
After a whole-class introduction, students work in pairs or threes on a collaborative discussion task, determining whether sets of conditions describe possible triangles (unique or otherwise) or whether it is impossible to draw a triangle with the conditions given. Throughout their work, students justify and explain their thinking and reasoning.
Students review their work by comparing their categorizations with their peers.
In a whole-class discussion, students review their work and discuss what they have learned.
In a follow-up lesson, students review their initial work on the assessment task and work alone on a similar task to the introductory task.
To help you assess how students reason about geometry.
To help you assess how well students are able to recall and apply triangle properties.
To help you assess how well students are able to sketch and construct triangles with given conditions.
To help you assess how well students are able to determine whether a set of given conditions for the measures of angle and/or sides of a triangle describe a unique triangle, more than one possible triangle or does not describe a possible triangle.