Activity Overview
The interactive Cabri Jr. geometry application makes it easy to measure the area of triangles and quadrilaterals. In this activity, students will explore some interesting area relationships in quadrilaterals.
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 163 - 166 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 trapezoid and its diagonals
Explore the relationship between the area of the triangle formed by diagonals
Investigate the relationship while dragging the vertices and sides of the trapezoid
Construct a parallelogram with a segment that divides the parallelogram into two trapezoids
Construct a square and its center
Construct a second conqruent square having a vertex at the center of the first square
Explore the relationship between the area of the square and the area of the region formed by the overlap of squares
After the Activity
Review student results:
As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
Re-teach concepts as necessary