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reSolve: Pythagoras' Theorem - Lunch Lap

Teacher guide reSolve: Pythagoras' Theorem - Lunch Lap

TLF ID M025323

In this sequence of two lessons, students apply Pythagoras' Theorem to explore a practical problem involving optimising paths to lunch carts. In the first lesson, students investigate the length of a path that touches three sides of a rectangle, starting and finishing at the same point. They model the problem, use Pythagoras' Theorem to calculate the length of the path, then work with spreadsheets and GeoGebra models to find the shortest possible path. In the second lesson, students use geometric reasoning to find the positions of the carts and justify that the parallelogram is the shortest path. The lessons are outlined in detail including curriculum links, vocabulary, sample answers, spreadsheets of data, discussion points and student resources. This sequence is part of the reSolve: Maths by Inquiry program.

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Educational details

Educational value
  • The resource is very valuable for the year 9 mathematics content description about investigating Pythagoras' Theorem and its application to solving simple problems using right angled triangles. During the learning sequence, students use Pythagoras' Theorem in different contexts to calculate lengths of paths to solve a problem.
  • This resource also offers opportunities to link to the Numeracy General capability, as it engages students in estimating and measuring with metric units to solve complex problems involving lengths of paths.
  • This resource is also of pedagogical value as it supports teachers in building an inquiry-focused learning environment with authentic application of mathematical skills and understandings. The unit aims to develop content knowledge as well as assisting students to understand the process of inquiry.
Year level

9

Topics Trigonometric ratios Distance Ratios Pythagoras´ theorem Similarity (Geometry)
Learning area
  • Mathematics

Other details

Contributors
  • Contributor
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: Australian Government Department of Education and Training
  • Organization: Australian Government Department of Education and Training
  • Publisher
  • Name: Australian Academy of Science
  • Organization: Australian Academy of Science
  • Description: Publisher
  • URL: https://www.science.org.au/
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Unknown
Learning Resource Type
  • Online
Rights
  • © Australian Government Department of Education and Training 2017. Unless otherwise indicated, this material may be used in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.