Regular Polygons and Circle Area

Instructional Support What tools or resources will students have to use in their work that will give them entry to, and help them reason through, the activity? Task What is the main activity that students will be working on in this lesson?
The main activity of this lesson is to explore the area of any regular polygon and the area of any circle. Students have established different apporaches to discovering the areas of figures thus far and will be encouraged to use prior knowledge to discover a formula or some other form of generalization to express the area of a regular polygon. The second part of this lesson connects the ideas of the regular polygon and correlates the measurents and conclusions regarding the area of a regular polygon to that of the measurements and area of any circle. After conjectues and conclusions are made the students are encouraged to demonstrate comprehension using examples to demonstrate the properties discovered.

Students will be arranged in small groups in order to encourage collaboration. I hope to have the students offer each other their own solution methods and compare how they might compare or differ. During the first portion of the lesson, student will explore the area of a regular polygon unsing material they have previously learned. The intention is for the students to utilize the formula for a triangle and apply a repetition of triangles to create a conjecture for the area of any regular polygon. When moving on to circle, the students will observe a powerpoint slide of regular polygons displayed in chronologicalical order in regard to number of sides.

Learning Goals (Residue) What understandings will students take away from this activity?
First of all, my hope is that my students leave with a confidence in finding the specific areas of any regular polygon and also knowing how to find the area of a circle. Also, my student will take away an understanding concerning the relationship between the area of these shapes and the measurements of all the essential components needed to comprise a regular polygon or circle. Another understanding I hope my students gain from this lesson is that concerning the approach to an unknown my opportunities for development have been highlighted concerning my utilization of time thinking in a deductive way.

What questions might you ask students that will support their exploration of the activity and bridge between what they did and what you want them to learn (the two green boxes)?
To be clear on what students actually did, begin by asking a set of assessing questions such as: What did you do? How did you get that? What does this mean? Once you have a clearer sense of what the student understands, move on to appropriate set of questions below.

What are the various ways that students might complete the activity?
Students may perhaps separate regular polygons into even sided and odd sided before approaching a generalization. Students may break the polygons into unequal partitions. Students may break the polygons into isosceles triangles (each meets at one vertex). Students may break the polygons into equal triangles (each meets in the center of the polygon).

Evidence What will students say, do, produce, etc. that will provide Once you break the polygon into congruent triangles, what evidence of their understandings? measurements do we need to find the area of the
triangle? The polygon? How do we represent those measurements in terms of the polygon?

Students will articulate their understanding concerning the lesson through several means: first, by verbally expressing to me the understanding, second, by demonstrating an applied problem using their notes or on the board in front, and lastly through a larg and open discussion.

Regular Polygons and Circle Area