Activity Overview
In this activity, students describe how to move a shape from one place to another in a plane. They learn about translations, rotations, and line reflections.
Before the Activity
Start the Geoboard App and format it
See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity
Print pages 133 - 144 from the attached PDF file for your class
During the Activity
Distribute the pages to the class.
Follow the Activity procedures:
Construct a triangle ABC
Perform a translation called slide and move the triangle first 6 units to the right and then 3 units upwards
Observe that the translation notation is given as (6,3)
Observe that the translation can also be represented with a directed slide arrow and the coordinates of its final position is given by the amount of horizontal and vertical change between the first and the final position (6,3)
Construct other shapes and move the shape according to the directed slide arrow and draw its final position
Examine the shapes, draw the slide arrow, and give the coordinates for each translation
Observe that the triangle can also be transformed by rotating about point A through any angle
Rotate the triangle about point A clockwise 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, and 360 degrees
Rotate the triangle counterclockwise 90 degrees and notice that this is the same as rotating it clockwise 270 degrees
Try to rotate about point B, 180 degrees, and observe this cannot be done
Rotate each shape through the given angle about the given point and sketch the diagram of the rotated position
Construct a square ABCD and flip it 2 units about a line IJ
Observe that the square is 2 units from line IJ on the other side
Flip each shape about the given line and then sketch a diagram of the final reflection image
After the Activity
Review student results:
As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
Re-teach concepts as necessary