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Geometry Standard for Grades 6–8
Expectations
Instructional programs from prekindergarten through grade 12 should enable all students to— In grades 6–8 all students should—
Analyze characteristics and properties of two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes and develop mathematical arguments about geometric relationships • precisely describe, classify, and understand relationships among types of two- and three-dimensional objects using their defining properties;
• understand relationships among the angles, side lengths, perimeters, areas, and volumes of similar objects;
• create and critique inductive and deductive arguments concerning geometric ideas and relationships, such as congruence, similarity, and the Pythagorean relationship.
Specify locations and describe spatial relationships using coordinate geometry and other representational systems • use coordinate geometry to represent and examine the properties of geometric shapes;
• use coordinate geometry to examine special geometric shapes, such as regular polygons or those with pairs of parallel or perpendicular sides.
Apply transformations and use symmetry to analyze mathematical situations • describe sizes, positions, and orientations of shapes under informal transformations such as flips, turns, slides, and scaling;
• examine the congruence, similarity, and line or rotational symmetry of objects using transformations.
Use visualization, spatial reasoning, and geometric modeling to solve problems • draw geometric objects with specified properties, such as side lengths or angle measures;
• use two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects to visualize and solve problems such as those involving surface area and volume;
• use visual tools such as networks to represent and solve problems;
• use geometric models to represent and explain numerical and algebraic relationships;
• recognize and apply geometric ideas and relationships in areas outside the mathematics classroom, such as art, science, and everyday life.
Students should come to the study of geometry in the middle grades with informal knowledge about points, lines, planes, and a variety of two-and three-dimensional shapes; with experience in visualizing and drawing lines, angles, triangles, and other polygons; and with intuitive notions about shapes built from years of interacting with objects in their daily lives.
In middle-grades geometry programs based on these recommendations, students investigate relationships by drawing, measuring, visualizing, comparing, transforming, and classifying geometric objects. Geometry provides a rich context for the development of mathematical reasoning, including inductive and deductive reasoning, making and validating conjectures, and classifying and defining geometric objects. Many topics treated in the Measurement Standard for the middle grades are closely connected to students' study of geometry.
Analyze characteristics and properties of two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes and develop mathematical arguments about geometric relationships
Middle-grades students should explore a variety of geometric shapes and examine their characteristics. Students can conduct these explorations using materials such as geoboards, dot paper, multiple-length cardboard strips with hinges, and dynamic geometry software to create two-dimensional shapes.
Students must carefully examine the features of shapes in order to precisely define and describe fundamental shapes, such as special types of quadrilaterals, and to identify relationships among the types of shapes. A teacher might ask students to draw several parallelograms on a coordinate grid or with dynamic geometry software. Students should make and record measurements of the sides and angles to observe some of the characteristic features of each type of parallelogram. They should then generate definitions for these shapes that are correct and consistent with the commonly used ones and recognize the principal relationships among elements of these parallelograms. A Venn diagram like the one shown in figure 6.14 might be used to summarize observations that a square is a special case of a rhombus and rectangle, each of which is a special case of a parallelogram.
Fig. 6.14. A diagram showing the relationship among types of parallelograms
p. 233 The teacher might also ask students to draw the diagonals of multiple examples of each shape, as shown in figure 6.15, and then measure the lengths of the diagonals and the angles they form. The results can be summarized in a table like that in figure 6.16. Students should observe that the diagonals of these parallelograms bisect each other, which they might propose as a defining characteristic of a parallelogram. Moreover, they might observe, the diagonals are perpendicular in rhombuses (including squares) but not in other parallelograms and the diagonals are of equal length in rectangles (including squares) but not in other parallelograms. These observations might suggest other defining characteristics of special quadrilaterals, for instance, that a square is a parallelogram with diagonals that are perpendicular and of equal » length. Using dynamic geometry software, students could explore the adequacy of this definition by trying to generate a counterexample.
Fig. 6.15. Students can draw the diagonals of parallelograms to make further observations.
Fig. 6.16. A table of students' observations about the properties of the diagonals of special types of quadrilaterals
Middle-grades students also need experience in working with congruent and similar shapes. From their earlier work, students should understand that congruent shapes and angles are identical and can be "matched" by placing one atop the other. Students can begin with an intuitive notion of similarity: similar shapes have congruent angles but not necessarily congruent sides. In the middle grades, they should extend their understanding of similarity to be more precise, noting, for instance, that similar shapes "match exactly when magnified or shrunk" or that their corresponding angles are congruent and their corresponding sides are related by a scale factor.
Students can investigate congruence and similarity in many settings, including art, architecture, and everyday life. For example, observe the overlapping pairs of triangles in the design of the kite in figure 6.17. The overlapping triangles, which have been disassembled in the figure, can be shown to be similar. Students can measure the angles of the triangles in the kite and see that their corresponding angles are congruent. They can measure the lengths of the sides of the triangles and see that the differences are not constant but are instead related by a constant scale factor. With the teacher's guidance, students can thus begin to develop a more formal definition of similarity in terms of relationships among sides and angles.
Fig. 6.17. Kite formed by overlapping triangles
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Linking Length, Perimeter, Area, and Volume
Investigations into the properties of, and relationships among, similar shapes can afford students many opportunities to develop and evaluate conjectures inductively and deductively. For example, an investigation of the perimeters, areas, and side lengths of the similar and » congruent triangles in the kite example could reveal relationships and lead to generalizations. Teachers might encourage students to formulate conjectures about the ratios of the side lengths, of the perimeters, and of the areas of the four similar triangles. They might conjecture that the ratio of the perimeters is the same as the scale factor relating the side lengths and that the ratio of the areas is the square of that scale factor. Then students could use dynamic geometry software to test the conjectures with other examples. Students can formulate deductive arguments about their conjectures. Communicating such reasoning accurately and clearly prepares students for creating and understanding more-formal proofs in subsequent grades.
Specify locations and describe spatial relationships using coordinate geometry and other representational systems
Geometric and algebraic representations of problems can be linked using coordinate geometry. Students could draw on the coordinate plane examples of the parallelograms discussed previously, examine their characteristic features using coordinates, and then interpret their properties algebraically. Such an investigation might include finding the slopes of the lines containing the segments that compose the shapes. From many examples of these shapes, students could make important observations about the slopes of parallel lines and perpendicular lines. Figure 6.18 helps illustrate for one specific rhombus what might be observed in general: the slopes of parallel lines (in this instance, the opposite sides of the rhombus) are equal and the slopes of perpendicular lines (in this instance, the diagonals of the rhombus) are negative reciprocals. The slopes of the diagonals are
and
Fig. 6.18. A rhombus drawn on the coordinate plane
Apply transformations and use symmetry to analyze mathematical situations
Transformational geometry offers another lens through which to investigate and interpret geometric objects. To help them form images of shapes through different transformations, students can use physical objects, figures traced on tissue paper, mirrors or other reflective surfaces, figures drawn on graph paper, and dynamic geometry software. They should explore the characteristics of flips, turns, and slides and should investigate relationships among compositions of transformations. These experiences should help students develop a strong understanding of line and rotational symmetry, scaling, and properties of polygons.
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Congruence, Similarity