Geometry: Area Measures and Right Triangles

Objectives

• Students will open or create a .tns file with a right triangle that has equilateral triangles on its sides. The areas of the equilateral triangles are measured and displayed on the screen.
• Students will investigate dependent and independent objects on a drawing, make a conjecture about the relationships between the areas of the equilateral triangles, and make a connection to the Pythagorean Theorem.

Vocabulary

• equilateral triangle
• area of a triangle
• Pythagorean Theorem

About the Lesson

This “create your own” activity features a right triangle that has equilateral triangles on its sides. The time varies for this activity depending on whether the TI-Nspire document (.tns file) is provided for or created by the students.