Unit Plan on Trigonometry

(with the use of GSP)

By:

Stephen Bismarck


This unit plan is for a high school class that has not seen much trigonometry and included some GSP sketches that can be used for deminestration or group exploration. I hope that you find this useful and feel free to make any changes to the sketches.

 

Chapter 1: Definition of Sine Cosine and Tangent

Day 1-2 Students will explore properties of right triangles such as Pythagorean theorem, angle measure, isoceles right triangles, AAA (angle, angle, angle) similarity, and will discover right triangles in the everyday world, both inside of objects and all by themselfs.

Day 3-4 Students will explore the property of AAA similarity in more depth as they look at Sine, Cosine and Tangent of the angles in such triangles. GSP Sketch 1.

Day 5-8 Explore using a scientific or graphing calculator to find the Sine, Cosine, and Tangent of angles and construct the triangles that would have such trigonometric results. Explore and prove trigonometry identity Click here for proof

Day 9 Assessment

 

Chapter 2: Arc Sine, Arc Cosine, and Arc Tangent

Day 10 Explore with students how to find the angle of a right triangle with only the sides given (with use of the scientific or graphing calculator that is).

Day 11-12 Student investigations for what angles these functions give you and their relation to the unit circle. Practice finding the angles of a triangle using these functions.

Day 13 Assessment

 

Chapter 3: Applications of Sine Cosine and Tangent

Day 14-17 Activities involving the angle of the sun and shadows to find the height of objects, ladder on the side of a building and how to find the height, angle of elevation vs. angle of depression problems, and others.

Day 18 Assessment

 

Chapter 4: Non-Right Triangle Trigonometry

Day 19-21 Explore and prove the Law of Sines and Law of Cosines

Day 22-23 Applications of Law of Sines and Law of Cosines

Day 24 Assessment

 


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