Discover how math is required for quality construction when a Master Carpenter shares his experience and expertise. This video focuses on explaining slope as rise over run and shows how slope comes into play when building homes to take math out of the classroom and into real world problem solving. This resource is part of the Math at the Core: Middle School collection.
In this video, learn how using the Pythagorean Theorem can help people solve real-world problems involving distances. In the accompanying classroom activity, students develop their problem-solving, spatial reasoning, and geometry skills by putting the Pythagorean Theorem to use. After a brief discussion about how to use the theorem to find the distance between two points on a coordinate grid, students partner up and play a game in which they generate (and then calculate the distance between) two or more points on the grid. As the game increases in complexity, students begin working in all quadrants and begin identifying multiple triangles that they can use to determine the distance between points.
Module 7, Topic C revisits the Pythagorean Theorem and its applications, now in a context that includes the use of square roots and irrational numbers. Students learn another proof of the Pythagorean Theorem involving areas of squares off of each side of a right triangle (8.G.B.6). Another proof of the converse of the Pythagorean Theorem is presented to students, which requires an understanding of congruent triangles (8.G.B.6). With the concept of square roots firmly in place, students apply the Pythagorean Theorem to solve real-world and mathematical problems to determine an unknown side length of a right triangle and the distance between two points on the coordinate plane (8.G.B.7, 8.G.B.8).
