We're at the point in Precalc where I'm going to start expecting the kids to *know* the values on the unit circle. Some of them won't put in any more time than we do in class (and it'll show) but many of them will spend some time learning those crazy ordered pairs.
I have a few things that I give them to help out a bit.
1. Trig Wheel of Values
A colleague gave me this a few years back and I think it's a lot of fun. It's a great way to turn a degrees angle into radians and review its ordered pair. And it's cute!
You start with two circles (one with degrees, one with radians and ordered pairs). When you assemble correctly you can see an easy conversion from one to the other. If I happen to get to the store, I usually pick up some of those brass brads to stick through the center to keep the circles together.
2. Today in class we played Around the World (remember playing that in 3rd grade?) with sin/cos/tan values. I let the kids reference their unit circle, but that'll be the last time that happens! I put the cards together on Quizlet, then embedded the deck on Schoology (our online environment). Here's my deck:
3. I'll probably put the Finger Trick for Trig out there for the kids, too. Seen this one?
If you're interested in any of my other random precalc stuff, here's a link to some stuff I put on box.net a couple of years ago. It's not greatly up to date, but it's someplace to start!
I have a few things that I give them to help out a bit.
1. Trig Wheel of Values
A colleague gave me this a few years back and I think it's a lot of fun. It's a great way to turn a degrees angle into radians and review its ordered pair. And it's cute!
You start with two circles (one with degrees, one with radians and ordered pairs). When you assemble correctly you can see an easy conversion from one to the other. If I happen to get to the store, I usually pick up some of those brass brads to stick through the center to keep the circles together. 
2. Today in class we played Around the World (remember playing that in 3rd grade?) with sin/cos/tan values. I let the kids reference their unit circle, but that'll be the last time that happens! I put the cards together on Quizlet, then embedded the deck on Schoology (our online environment). Here's my deck:
3. I'll probably put the Finger Trick for Trig out there for the kids, too. Seen this one?
If you're interested in any of my other random precalc stuff, here's a link to some stuff I put on box.net a couple of years ago. It's not greatly up to date, but it's someplace to start!
I've never seen the left hand trick! Fun!
ReplyDeleteI love the conversion unit circles; I'm definitely doing something similar with my classes.
ReplyDeleteThanks!