This winter-themed angle relationships and triangles activity will help your 8th grade math students think outside of the box. This real world application connects parallel lines cut by a transversal, angle relationships, and similar triangles to ski slopes.
Real life applications are an essential part of any curriculum, but can often intimidate students. This activity offers scaffolding to support students as they learn to solve word problems and navigate the problem solving process.
This 8th grade math activity is perfect for group work and collaboration. It can also be used as a stand-alone formative assessment for polynomial operations!
This angle relationships and triangle activity includes:
✅ Finding missing angles and side lengths
✅ Angle rules for parallel lines cut by a transversal (corresponding angles, vertical angles, alternate interior angles)
✅ Similar triangles & proportions
✅ Triangle angle sum theorem
✅ Complementary and supplementary angles
☆Answer key and teacher directions included☆
Version 1 assesses finding missing side lengths from similar triangles and finding missing angles from parallel lines and transversals, angle sum theorem, and exterior/interior angles.
Version 2 breaks up the activity if you only want to assess similar triangle rules and finding missing side lengths using proportions.
What is the real world scenario?
At the Snowy Peaks Ski Resort, the ski slopes are designed with triangular paths to ensure the best angles for skiing. The slopes form right triangles with the mountain’s height and the base of the hill.
How is this real life application different than regular word problems?
Most word problems have one question that needs to be answered and little follow up or detail. My real world math activities stretch one idea or scenario into a meaningful performance task that can be used as a full assessment of student learning.
This application is more than interpreting the question and quickly getting to the answer. Your students will be challenged to think critically about each scenario and defend their solutions.
The best part? All of the topics are relevant and modernized (because kids don’t care about calculating CD sales or cell phone minutes anymore).
How you can use this angle relationships and triangle activity in your 8th grade math classroom:
⭐Whole Group: Version 2 of this real world math activity is perfect for guided notes and introducing solving word problems with triangles.
⭐Small Group: Your students can work together to complete this activity and have discussions about different strategies for finding missing side lengths and angles.
⭐ Individual: You can use Version 2 as a formative assessment or Version 1 as an alternative summative assessment for angle relationships and triangles.
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