Reply To: Lesson 1 – Which Is Bigger? – Discussion

[Nathan Vaillancourt]

I’ve noticed recently a real lack of spatial awareness even in my grade 12s while we were recently examining area of composite shapes. For example, if a figured looked like a rectangle topped with a triangle, and they were told the total height and the height of the rectangle many of them struggled with how to know the height of the triangle. Or they couldn’t see why the side length of a triangle wouldn’t be its height. I like to think I could have done a better job helping them if we were face-to-face and we could use physical objects, but I don’t know.

[Nathan Vaillancourt]

I’ve noticed recently a real lack of spatial awareness even in my grade 12s while we were recently examining area of composite shapes. For example, if a figured looked like a rectangle topped with a triangle, and they were told the total height and the height of the rectangle many of them struggled with how to know the height of the triangle. Or they couldn’t see why the side length of a triangle wouldn’t be its height. I like to think I could have done a better job helping them if we were face-to-face and we could use physical objects, but I don’t know.