Week 13 - Grade 11 Functions

Each lesson presented this week for the grade 11 functions class used visual aids to implement understanding for students. My particular favourite was the matching games used for trig identities. Saying 'trig identities' is usually enough to make a room full of people groan, however the matching games used in this lesson plan motivated us to dive into proving the identities given. Below is a photo of each matching game that was used.

The matching square has a higher difficulty level since each side of each small square has to be equal to it's adjacent square, however it would be a good 'exit card' activity, depending on your class. It could also be used as an extra activity for the students who are ahead of the class. The essence of matching activities can be used for more than just trig identities and I feel that they would be an asset to the math learning environment. Students are more likely to be motivated to finish a matching activity than they would be to finish the exact same work on a worksheet. Plus, the students would still be working their way through the curriculum requirements. Class doesn't have to be boring, just because it's math; I think that the best learning happens when students are having fun with the learning because the learning is more memorable and is more likely to stick with them even after exams are done.