Geometry Teacher's Activities Kit: Ready-to-Use Lessons & Worksheets For Grades 6-12 [Spiral-bound]

Judith A. Muschla (Author), Gary Robert Muschla (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0130167770 | ISBN-13: 978-0130167774

For all math teachers in grades 6-12, this practical resource provides 130 detailed lessons with reproducible worksheets to help students understand geometry concepts and recognize and interpret geometry's relationship to the real world. The lessons and worksheets are organized into seven sections, each covering one major area of geometry and presented in an easy-to-follow format including title focusing on a specific topic/skill, learning objective, special materials (if any), teaching notes with step-by-step directions, answer key, and reproducible student activity sheets. Activities in sections 1-6 are presented in order of difficulty within each section while those in Part 7, "A Potpourri of Geometry" are open-ended and may be used with most middle and high school classes. Many activities throughout the book may be used with calculators and computers in line with the NCTM's recommendations.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This unique resource gives teachers 130 lessons with accompanying activity sheets to help students understand geometric concepts and recognize, interpret, and appreciate geometry's relationship to the real world—from hexagonal snowflakes to the Golden Rectangle of art and architecture!

Each lesson features an Objective, Special materials, Teaching Notes with step-by-step directions, Answer Key when necessary, and worksheets. And for easy access and use, materials are organize into seven parts and printed in a big 8-1/4" x 11" spiral-bound format that folds flat for photocopying of any worksheet as many times as needed.

Here's just a sampling of the ready-to-use help you'll find in each part:
The Language of Geometry offers 26 activities that focus on fundamental concepts and skills, from basic vocabulary and figures (A Geometry "Word Puzzle), networks (Tracing Networks), tangrams (Constructing a Tangram) to lines, segments, angles, transversals, optical illusions, and if-then statements.

Polygons—The Foundations provides 19 activities that cover the basics of polygons, including concave and convex polygons...symmetry (The Symmetry of Logos)...triangles (Try Your Hand at Drawing Triangles)...The Pythagoren Theorem...magic squares...and quadrilaterals (Creating Quadrillaterals by Connecting Midpoints).

Polygons—Advanced includes 25 activities that address advanced topics of polygons, such as figurate numbers...attributes of triangles (What Type of Triangle)?...Pascal's Triangle...interior angles (Finding the Sum of Interior Angles of a Polygon)...diagnosis (Sides, Diagnosis, and Handshakes)...right triangles (Right Triangles and Special Right Triangles)...sine, cosine, and tangent rations...congruency...similarity...and Fibonacci Rectangles.

Circles contains 15 activities that include magic circles...symmetry (Circles and Symmetry)...Inscribed Polygons...tangents (Tangents: Circles and Lines)...The Archimedean Spiral (A curve from Concentric Circles)...and trigonometric functions (The Circular Definition of the Trigonometric Functions).

3-D Figures supplies 12 activities, covering topics like pentominoes (Visualizing with Pentominoes)...cubes (Stacking Cubes)...prisms (Creating Prisms from Nets)...nets...regular pyramids (Constructing Nets and Regular Pyramids)...Platonic solids...and the creation of three-dimensional models (Drawing Three-Dimensional Models).

Applications of Geometry provides 12 activities that demonstrate ways geometry can be applied to the real world, focusing on working with scale...finding perimeter (Fencing a Yard)...area (Fertilizing a Lawn)...volume (Surface Area and Volume of a Prism)...and working with formulas (Creating Problems and Applying Formulas).

A Potpourri of Geometry offers 21 open-ended activities, such as a student-designed geometry lesson (The Geometry Teacher)...geometry poems (Writing Concrete Poems in Geometry)...careers (A Collage of Geometry Careers))...geometry in Native American cultures...geometry in sports, nature, and architecture...and more!

You'll find that lessons in Parts 1-6 are sequenced in order of difficulty—beginning with activities geared to middle school geometry and proceeding to activities designed for the high school curriculum. The activities in Part 7 can be used in any order you wish. What's more, many activities throughout the Kit are ideal for calculators and computer use.

In short, Geometry Teacher's Activities Kit gives you scores of stimulating ways to reinforce and extend the skills taught in your classroom while improving your students' ability to analyze, problem solve, and see geometry's vital role in the study of mathematics.

About the Author

Geometry Teacher's Activities Kit is the fourth practical resource for math teachers co-authored by Judith and Gary Muschla. Their earlier works included The Math Teacher's Book of Lists (Prentice Hall, 1995), Hands-On Math Project with Real-Life Applications (The Center, 1996), and Math Starters! 5-to 10-Minute Activities to make Kids Think, Grades 6-12 (The Center, 1999).

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 355 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass (March 29, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130167770
• ISBN-13: 978-0130167774
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,187,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Usable Activities!, August 17, 2000

By 

Betty Dust (Calico Rock, AR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Geometry Teacher's Activities Kit: Ready-to-Use Lessons & Worksheets For Grades 6-12 (Spiral-bound)

I've been teaching geometry for several years and this is the first book that I have found that has almost everything in it that I need. The teacher pages are well-written and the student pages are very well done. This book works well for both high school students who are studying formal geometry and for younger students who may not be as advanced. Thanks!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great material for Geometry, September 7, 2005

By 

Ma Bernadette A. Salgarino "dirichlet" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Geometry Teacher's Activities Kit: Ready-to-Use Lessons & Worksheets for Grades 6-12 (J-B Ed: Activities) (Paperback)

I find the worksheets very useful. I have been using it since day 1 in my Geometry class. It has a variety of exercises and the applications to everyday-situation is interesting. Try it!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More like a book of worksheets instead of activities, August 27, 2011

By 

Judy Naz - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Geometry Teacher's Activities Kit: Ready-to-Use Lessons & Worksheets for Grades 6-12 (J-B Ed: Activities) (Paperback)

I don't see this book as an activities kit. It is more of a workbook meant to review geometry skills and concepts.

Bad points:
* The work required to complete the activities (or worksheets) doesn't focus on the rigor of geometry.

* If you're a high school or middle school teacher, some of the activities may be too simple.

Good points:
* There are teaching notes and answer keys for each activity.

* The work for each activity is of average difficulty--maybe 15-20 minutes for students to complete on their own.
So if you don't know what to have students do while you're out sick, this book has many ideas. You might even use an activity from this book.

* Since there are more than 100+ activities , this book does a good job of covering the whole scope of geometry--excluding proof. There are even suggestions on research you can assign your students.

* The authors did a good job of making geometry concepts relevant to students--like relating parallel lines and perpendicular lines to numbers and text, angles to formations of hands on a clock, etc.

If you're a new geometry teacher, you'll get many ideas on what to teach and how to teach geometry.

If you're a seasoned geometry teacher (10+ years), it might be a good idea to pass on this book.