Education Technology


Test for Parallelograms

Activity Overview

Test for Parallelograms

Before the Activity

Explore relationships (including congruence and similarity) among classes of two- and three-dimensional geometric objects, make and test conjectures about them, and solve problems involving them. This activity will help students visualize the converse of the properties of a parallelogram. Extensions are in the problem already. Students will have to test their constructions after dragging vertices.

During the Activity

Students will: 1. Construct a parallelogram and test the property - opposite sides are always the same distance apart. 2. Construct a quadrilateral that has no special properties ? that is, none of the opposite sides are congruent or parallel. 3. Move the vertices to satisfy given conditions that lead them to conclude that the quadrilateral becomes a parallelogram only if these conditions are satisfied.

After the Activity

Review student answers:

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