AMAZING STEM

The vast majority of my students view geometry as a necessary but uninteresting

subject. We have done numerous activities to make the seemingly endless calculations
in geometry seem interesting, but I just couldnt get my students to connect to their
learning.
One of the most challenging topics in seventh grade is the correlation between
the area formula for a circle and the area formula for a parallelogram. The relationship
can be proven through a fairly extensive geometric proof, especially for seventh
graders. After all, Archimedes pondered the relationship extensively. I relentlessly
taught this beautiful proof with no positive results from my students, using only the
pictures and examples from the textbook as a guide.
A simple yet amazing idea came to me while making coffee: filters are perfect
circles. I cannot take credit for the idea of deconstructing a circle (as it appears in most
textbooks) but using coffee filters is all me! I brought a stack of coffee filters to school
and armed with markers, scissors and construction paper, we set out to prove that the
area formula for a circle is related to the area formula for a parallelogram.
My students traced the radius and half the circumference of the circle on their
filters. By folding and then cutting, students created 4, 8 or 16 congruent slivers of the
coffee filter. They alternated the slivers, all the traced edges on one side, until they
formed a parallelogram. They had modeled the geometric proof and began to look
critically at their work. Smaller slivers made better parallelograms; the height was the
same as the radius; the base was the distance of half the circumference; and the
mathematical calculations for the circle matched the parallelogram! Finally, an
inexpensive coffee filter had taught my students what no amount of textbook examples
ever could!

Hashtags: #7thgrademath #circles #geometry #handsonlearning #using models,

#repurposing, #mathiseverywhere