CCSS Math Activities
Smarter Balanced Sample Items: 8th Grade Math – Target G
Transform the thinking of transformations with six sample items that illustrate the first four standards in the eighth grade geometry domain. Items use the coordinate plane to transform figures and analyze the relationship of the figures...
Concord Consortium
Mirror, Mirror I
How do you see yourself? Young mathematicians consider whether it's possible to view their whole bodies in a mirror with a length that is half their height. They write a letter to a friend explaining their positions mathematically.
Mascil Project
Pottery
Don't cry over broken pottery. A cross-curricular lesson challenges pupils to consider how to restore ancient pottery. Using a computer program and their knowledge of transformations, they come up with a way to recreate the original...
Mathematics Vision Project
Module 1: Transformations and Symmetry
No need to change anything about the resource. The first of eight modules in the MVP Geometry unit focuses on transformations in the coordinate plane. It connects translations, rotations, and reflections to congruence, symmetry, and...
101 Questions
Best Reflection
Which is the best reflection of them all? Given four diagrams, pupils determine which one shows the most accurate reflection of a quadrilateral. Two images provide the distances of each vertex from the line of reflection, as well as the...
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Bank Shot
Bank on geometry to line up the shot. The resource asks the class to determine the location to bank a cue ball in a game of billiards. Using their knowledge, class members determine where to hit the bumper to make a shot and discuss...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Triangle Congruence with Rigid Motion
Combine transformations and triangle congruence in a single lesson. Scholars learn to view congruent triangles as a rigid transformation. Using triangle congruence criteria, learners identify congruent triangles and the rigid...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Building Functions: Inverse Functions from Tables and Graphs
Is the inverse a function? Scholars learn how to examine a function to answer this question. Using an online interactive, they examine the properties of inverse functions to compare to the original function.
Shodor Education Foundation
Transmographer
Introducing ... the Transmographer. Young mathematicians investigate translations, reflections, and rotations. The applet lets users perform transformations on triangles, squares, and parallelograms.
Cornell University
Light Waves: Grades 9-12
Explore the behavior of light waves with a lab activity. Scholars build new vocabulary through experimentation and observation. Using different mediums, they model reflection, refraction, transmission, diffusion, and scattering of light.
Cornell University
Light Waves: Grades 6-8
Explore the behavior of light with different materials. Collaborative groups determine whether certain materials absorb, reflect, diffract, or transmit light waves. They then measure the angle of incidence and angle of reflection.
GeoGebra
Leaping Lizards
Transform lizards onto different locations. The interactive provides a diagram of a lizard and several locations. Pupils use their knowledge of transformations to move the lizard to the different locations and use the tools of GeoGebra...
Mathematics Vision Project
Transformations and Symmetry
Flip, turn, and slide about the coordinate plane. Pupils define the rigid motions and experiment with them before determining the relationships of the slopes of parallel and perpendicular lines. The sixth unit in a nine-part series...
Columbus City Schools
Moon Phase Mania
Now you see it, now you don't. Our moon seems to pull a disappearing act from time to time—but why? Take your seventh grade scientists above and beyond to discover the truth about the moon and the role it plays in Earth's little corner...
CK-12 Foundation
Diamond Cut
How do jewelers tell the difference between diamonds, glass, and cubic zirconia? A sparkling simulation demonstrates how to use a ray of light to determine the substance and ideal shape for a diamond. Scholars control the material,...
Space Awareness
The Fibre Optic Cable Class
Many people know that fiber optics are used in delivering the Internet, but are surprised to learn they are also used in astronomy. Scholars explore light, reflection, and fiber optics through hands-on activities. They discuss methods of...
CK-12 Foundation
Sine Graph and Cosine Graph: Changing Amplitude
Scholars manipulate the amplitude of the graphs of sine and cosine, notice how the change in amplitude is reflected in their graphs, and answer several questions about the concept they noticed.
Columbus City Schools
Earthly Waves
How did scientists discover what lies beneath the earth's surface? Dig a hole? X-ray vision? Guide your class through the types of seismic waves and how these waves helped shed light on Earth's many layers. The included resources provide...
CK-12 Foundation
Prom Night
Create the perfect prom night image using the Law of Reflection! An interactive lesson explores angles of reflection when looking in a full-length mirror. Learners change the distance from the mirror and length of the mirror and watch...
Mathematics Vision Project
Congruence, Construction and Proof
Learn about constructing figures, proofs, and transformations. The seventh unit in a course of nine makes the connections between geometric constructions, congruence, and proofs. Scholars learn to construct special quadrilaterals,...
Virginia Department of Education
Transformations
Geometry in life-sized dimensions! Using enlarged graph paper, pupils perform a series of transformations. By recording the initial and final placement of the images, they are able to analyze the patterns in the coordinates during a...
PBL Pathways
Arch Project
Model real-life structures with mathematics. A project-based lesson presents a problem situation requiring classes to develop a function to model the St. Louis Arch and the Rainbow Bridge in Arizona. They create their models by...
Virginia Department of Education
Transformations
The coordinate plane is a popular place! Identify rotations, reflections, and dilations on the coordinate plane. Pupils work in small groups to match transformations of a figure with the description of the transformation. They perform...
Virginia Department of Education
Quadratic Modeling
Use a one-stop resource for everything you'd possibly want to teach about quadratic functions and models. Scholars analyze key features of quadratic functions as well as transformations of functions through seven activities....