Education Technology


Translations in the Plane

Activity Overview

In this activity, students will perform a translation, and explore the properties of translations. In the second part of this activity, they will extend the concept of translations to the coordinate plane.

Before the Activity

  • Install the Cabri Jr. App on the students' graphing calculators using TI-Connect™, a TI Connectivity Cable and the Unit-to-Unit Link Cable
  • Use the TI-Navigator™ to transfer the attached Cabri Jr. AppVar files to each calculator
  • See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity
  • Print pages 37 - 40 from the attached PDF file for your class
  • During the Activity

    Distribute the pages to your class.

    Follow the Activity procedures:

  • Use the AppVar to go directly to the exploration section
  • Construct a triangle and a translation segment
  • Translate the triangle based on the length and direction of the translation segment
  • Drag the vertices and sides of the triangle and observe how the new triangle (image) changes
  • Drag a point on the translational segment and observe how the new triangle (image) changes
  • Draw a triangle to translate in the coordinate plane
  • Reflect the triangle across the x-axis and y-axis
  • Observe the relationships between the coordinates of the vertices of the pre-image and the corresponding vertices of the image
  • After the Activity

    Review student results:

  • As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
  • Re-teach concepts as necessary