Activity Overview
This activity is designed to be used in a middle-school or high-school geometry classroom. An understanding of labeling points in the coordinate plane is necessary.
This is an exploration using reflections to move a polygon about the coordinate plane.
Before the Activity
A review of the coordinate plane, quadrants, and labeling points is helpful for labeling the points as well as describing the transformations. To encourage student to describe the transformations observed concrete examples should be introduced. Using a chair with wheels, push the chair away. Ask the students to describe the change that occurs. Ask students what occurs when they look in the mirror each morning. Encourage students to develop descriptions using such terms as flip, turn, and slide.
During the Activity
This activity is student-centered with the teacher role as that of facilitator. Small groups will encourage discussion regarding observations.
After the Activity
Assessment is included in the attached Word and PDF documents.