GeoGebra success!

At the beginning of the year, I had my Geometry students use the free software GeoGebra to model an orienteering situation. They really struggled with it for a number of reasons I won't get into now. We are currently working with circles in class, and I had gotten to a section of the book that includes four theorems about inscribed angles. I didn't like any of the types of problems provided by the textbook - I found them uninspiring and I felt that students could learn how to do the problems without understanding the theorems. So I created a short project in which students would create models of the theorems in GeoGebra. I hoped it would give them a sense of what the theorems say and how they work. I also hoped they would gain some familiarity with a new digital environment, which I think is important for students. They had to create the models so that even if I dragged some of the points around in the program, the theorem would still hold up. In addition, students had to write up the steps they took to create the model. I had many trepidations going into this project - Would the technology work? Would students be able to work in the environment of the software? Would it be too easy or too hard? Would it take more or less than the three days I was allotting for it? In the end, it worked out beautifully. It was the right amount of challenge for my students. They worked at their own pace, and few students had real difficulty figuring out how to use the tools in GeoGebra. I led them through the steps of the first theorem, and they created the other three on their own. I am including samples of their work, as well as the project description and grading rubrics.

For the students who got done early, I asked them to spend a little time on this awesome geometry construction website:  http://sciencevsmagic.net/geo/
 

Materials

Project Description and Rubrics
Steps for Theorem 10.6
Steps for Theorems 10.7, 10.8, 10.9