Lesson Plan #3

7-4: Indirect Measurement Part C and D

Teacher: Michael Schmidt
Topic: More Right Triangle Trigonometry and Making Connections
Length of Lesson: 50-60 minutes
Goals and Objectives

Mathematical Goals:
o Students will be introduced to right angle trigonometry
o Student will be understand and use the following new terms:
Sine
Cosine
Mathematical Objective:
o Use the trigonometric ratios to make indirect measurements

Previous Knowledge:

Students have a working knowledge of TI-Nspire calculators

Students have previously begun to use trigonometry to make indirect measurements of right
triangle side lengths

Materials:

TI-Nspire Calculators one for each student

o All calculators will need to have Right Triangle, Tangent activity downloaded to them
Loose paper for student who forget notebooks
Textbook pages 540-550

Anticipatory Set:

Begin with questions over homework

The warm-up will review concept from homework

Teacher
The teacher will go over
questions over the homework
and will encourage student to
go over their solutions with the
class.

Student
The students will ask about
problems they had trouble with
and will help each other clear
misconceptions.

Rationale
Allows students to learn from
each other.

Instructor will lead the class in a

warm up that will reinforce
previously learned material.
The warm up will ask student to
solve for the unknowns in the
following proportions:
1. 8/4=x/2
2. y/5=3/15

Students will work individually

and compare answers with a
partner.

The lesson will need to use

these techniques later in the
lesson

Answers:
1. x=4
2. y=1
Schmidt 1

3. 7/21=14/z
4. What is the tangent of
an angle in a right
triangle?

3. z=42
4. Ratio of the opposite
and adjacent legs

Information and Modeling: Launch

This part of the lesson will introduce sine and cosine ratios for right triangles
This information is on pages 540-541 of textbook

Teacher
The instructor will introduce the
cosine and sine ratios and
provide definitions.
The cosine of and
angle is the ratio of the
adjacent leg length of
the angle and the
hypotenuse of a right
triangle.
The sine of an angle is
the ratio of the
opposite leg length of
the angle and the
hypotenuse length of a
right triangle.
The teacher will go over the
following example problem on
page 542:

Student
The student should open
textbooks to page 540 and get
out notebooks.

A 50ft ramp is used to load

cargo into an airplane. If the
ramp makes a 23 angel with
the ground, how far away is the
plane from the bottom of the
ramp?

Answer: x=46.0ft

Rationale
The notes that student take will
be useful for their homework
and future studying purposes.

Students will take notes and

record formal definitions of the
key terms.

Student will draw picture

include solution in their notes.

This provides the student with a

practical example problem.

Draw a picture for students on

the board.

Schmidt 2

Checking for Understanding:

This will allow the teacher to see if the student are ready for the TI-Nspire activity

Teacher
The instructor will divide the
class into three different
sections and assigned each
section one of the following
problems:
1. Sin(62)=x/5
2. Cos(36)=y/10
3. Tan(46)=18/z

Student
Each student will work on the
problem their section was
assigned individually.

Rationale
This will provide the student
with time to individually work
through a problem.

As the students are working

through the problems the
teacher will monitor the class to
answer questions and select
students to present their
solutions to the class.

Once students finished their

problem they will be allowed to
check their solutions with the
other members of their section.

This allows the instructor to

with opportunities to assess the
understanding of the students.
It also allows the students to
learn from each other.

The instructor will ask students

to present their solutions to the
class.

Student will record the

solutions in their notes

Allows student to see how other

student solved their problems
and provides the student with
correct solutions to the
problems they were not
assigned.

Student
Students will use the
measurement tool and
calculator application of the TINSpire to determine the angle
of elevation for the sighting of
an eagle and to also determine
its distance away. They will then
determine the total distance
the hiker must travel to reach
the eagle. During this time
students will record answers to
the program questions on a
separate sheet of paper that
will be turned in when they are
done.

Rationale
The TI-Nspire program allow the
students to work with the
previously learned material and
use it to solve a problem. The
instructor will provide guidance
where needed so the student
do not get too frustrated or fall
behind.

Answers:
1. x=4.41
2. y=8.09
3. z=17.38

Guided Practice: Explore

Teacher
The instructor will ask students
to begin working through the
Right Triangle, Tangent
activity on the TI-Nspire
calculators. During this time
the instructor will monitor the
classroom and help students
with misconceptions and
technical difficulties.

Schmidt 3

Closure: Summarize
Teacher
The teacher will bring the class
back together and facilitate a
discussion over the activity
asking the students the
following questions:

Student
The student will provide
feedback about the activity and
discus the content in groups
and the whole class.

Rationale
This will allow the student to
reflect over the material and
connect the activity with
previously learned material.

1. How did the activity go?

2. What did you do?
3. What was
easy/challenging?
4. How does the activity
relate to recent
material?
5.
Formative Assessment:

The instructor will collect and grade each students answers to the questions from the activity
The following questions will be assigned for the students to turn in tomorrow.
o Page 544: #3-5
o Page 545: #13, 15
o Page547: #32

Schmidt 4