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Geometry - The Basics & Beyond
Rating: 4.5 out of 5(13 ratings)
765 students

Geometry - The Basics & Beyond

How to win friends and influence people (if friends and "people" are impressed by words like isosceles).
Created byMichael Taylor
Last updated 6/2020
English

What you'll learn

  • SECTION 1
  • Master the vocabulary needed for success in a Geometry class
  • Describe a polygon, give examples and non-examples
  • List the basic parts of a circle
  • Calculate the area and perimeter of rectangles and triangles
  • Describe the concepts of perimeter, area, and volume
  • Calculate the volume of a right prism (given the area of the base)
  • Categorize angles, triangles, and undefined terms by sight
  • Name angles, rays, lines, and segments using symbolic shorthand
  • SECTION 2
  • Apply the concepts of precise definitions and counter-examples
  • Construct items such as perpendicular segment bisectors using both electronic tools and paper, compass, straight-edge and-pencil
  • Define rotations, reflections, and translations in terms of angles, circles, perpendicular lines, parallel lines, and line segments.
  • Determine the image produce by a series of transformations
  • Use transformation to prove SSS, SAS, ASA, and AAS
  • Determine the series of transformations required to create a particular image (given a pre-image)
  • Use transformations to prove congruency of shapes
  • Use two-column proofs to prove theorems about triangles, quadrilaterals, and parallel lines

Course content

3 sections37 lectures4h 43m total length
  • Welcome1:04

    A goofy welcome video filmed long after most of the content.

  • My Parrot Left, Now Polly Gone: Shapes, Bad Puns, and important vocabulary5:49

    What you'll learn:

    What is and isn't a polygon?

    How to draw a 13-gon.

    Name the shapes for these clues:

    -The Military Building in Washington DC

    -The shape of most nuts (of nuts and bolts, not nuts and squirrels)

    -The 1980 movie where Chuck Norris kicks butt (of course, he always kicks butt)

    Rambling Teacher Thoughts:

    Having taught Geometry for almost a decade, I've learned that one of the biggest challenges is simply the vocabulary. Some of the vocabulary is used daily, whereas others are specialized and not usually found in everyday conversation (I'm looking at you, hypotenuse!). This lectur introduces one of common intro lessons found in most Geometry books. Some of these terms SHOULD be familiar while others will not be. I'm including some outside resources to practice. If a term is confusing... Well, you're on the internet, look it up - someone else probably has a slightly different explanation that will probably fit into your existing knowledge base!

  • Shape Vocab
  • Go straight, then turn right: Length and Area9:13

    What you'll learn:

    What is perimeter?

    How is perimeter different from area?

    What's the perimeter and area of a 4 cm by 10 cm rectangle?

    What's the perimeter of a shape that has sides that are length of 3, 6, 4, 7, and 2?

    What's the area of a triangle that has a height of 3 and a base of 8?

    Rambling Teacher Thoughts:

    Measuring length, calculating perimeter, and calculating area are practical skills that everyone should have.

    There's no substitute for practice here and I'll include a bunch of practice links for the problems above and much harder ones (like kites and trapezoids).

  • Area and Perimeter: Are you spreading over or walking around?
  • The Circle of Life: Cue dramatic music...6:36

    What you'll learn:

    How are radius and diameter related?

    What is pi?

    What's the formula for area of a circle?

    Rambling Teacher Thoughts:

    The circle is a magical figure. Every point along the circle is exactly the same distance from the center. All circles are similar - that is, they are all resized variations of every other circle. If you take any segment and draw an identical size circle using each endpoint as a center, the resulting intersections are endpoints for a second segment which bisects the original segment. I know that sounds likely gobbledy-gook, but it's true!

    There's an external link the practices some circle vocabulary coming up later but you need to learn how to name angles first.

  • Circles!
  • Practice Time: Explanation of external link in description6:06

    This link offers some practice calculating the area and perimeter of squares, rectangles, triangles, kites, trapezoids, and parallelograms. The video explains the feedback interface as well as talks about a couple of the shapes that have not yet been discussed such as kites, trapezoids, and parallelograms.

    If you want even FURTHER explanation about perimeter and area as well as some unusual quizzes. See the link to some other videos I did for my classes.

  • Flatland: The best book you've never read7:08

    What you'll learn:

    Defining the undefinable: Points, lines, and planes.

    The inhabitants of Flatland: Segments and three classes of triangles

    Hard to spell words like Scalene, Isosceles, and Equilateral

    Symbols for naming segments, lines, and rays.


    Rambling Teacher Thoughts:

    Points, Lines, and Planes are the undefined terms that are the building blocks of geometry.

    Flatland by Edwin Abbott is a fun little novella that explores this in detail as well as sets up a really interesting analogy for talking about the fourth dimension.

  • Trying to drive home a Point...
  • You're already a great student. Do you want to be better?3:09

    A short motivational speech about how to raise your game to the next level.

    The top 5 RESEARCH PROVEN EFFECTIVE** strategies for teaching (and thus learning) are as follows. Which ones work best for you? Which ones might you want to try more?

    1) Identifying similarities and differences

    2) Summarizing and Note Taking

    3) Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition*

    4) Homework and Practice

    5) Nonlinguistic Representations (PICTURES!)

    As a self-motivated life-long learner, you need to have some "go-to" strategies as well as might want to mix things up from time to time.

    *Does this seem odd to do for yourself? Positive self-talk is one of the best things you can do - why wait for someone else to tell you that you worked hard and got better at something?

    **Kudos to R. Marzano et al for their awesome book "Classroom Instruction that Works"

  • Space Madness! Cubes within cubes and covered with squares7:53

    What you'll learn:

    Cubic measure is how much space something takes up

    Analogy - Perimeter:area :: Surface Area : volume

    Analogy - Right Prisms:Rectangles :: Pyramids:Triangles

    Metaphor: A cone is when a circle and a pyramid have a baby.

    Hard Cold Fact: Circles and Spheres have formulas - memorize circle, find out if sphere is on the test

    Rambling Teacher Thoughts:

    This briefly talks about 3-D and Volume and then encourages you to look at these external links which have more tutorials and videos that I created.

    More Videos and Mini Quizzes

    Visual Volume Practice

    Visual Volume and Surface Area

    Surface Area and Volume Practice

    A real challenge - Only if you dare

    More about Lateral Area and calculating surface area

  • Angles8:27

    What you'll learn:

    What makes an angle?

    What are degrees?

    How many degrees are in a straight line and a right angle?

    What are the classifications of angles?

    How does one use a protractor?

    Rambling Teacher Thoughts:

    Angles and degrees are used a lot in every day life. 45 and 90 degree angles come up all the time. They are the 1/4 and 1/2 of the angle world. Protractors are useful tools for certain situations but, not being an architect, rarely use one.

    For more fun interactive practice see this protractor practice link. After watching the intro, try the "Up to 180 degrees in 10s". With this exercise, I'd suggest using the protractor a few times and then just estimating. You should be able to get most angles with only two guesses.

  • Angles Part 2 : This time it's personal!8:22

    What you'll learn:

    Exactly how to line up a protractor on the paper.

    The classifications of angles.

    How to figure out an angle in a linear pair or a complementary pair.


    Rambling Teacher Thoughts:

    Blah blah blah blah. I actual rambled enough in the last description.

    The promised circle vocabulary quiz.

    Hints for link.

    A Tangent is a line that crosses a circle at exactly one point. (Get two close, touch two points, Your a secant!)

    A Major Arc is more than 180 degrees (more than half a circle)

    A hypotenuse is the long side of a RIGHT triangle

    Congruent means same size and shape

    WOW - that's literally about a days lecture in 4 lines!!

  • Wrap up0:21

    Just a link for practice.

    A lot of this was vocabulary.

    Here's some more practice

    There's a few words we haven't covered. You can look them up or make an intelligent guess based on context (it is matching!).

Requirements

  • This course only assumes basic english fluency and basic numerical fluency.
  • A notebook for taking notes is always a good idea
  • Many of the supplemental exercises are on the internet and will require internet access but not particular browser or software is required.
  • A positive mental attitude (and a full house) beats a bad attitude (and a straight) any day of the week

Description

The demand for my basics course was so high, I decided to expand it and charge a small fee for the extra time and effort for pulling these lectures and external resources together. The first expansion includes explanation and practice for about a quarter of the Common Core standards. Specifically it includes all the “Congruence” standards which encompasses the new focus on transformations as well as a lot of traditional two column proofs. Eventually I hope to make it to make it through all of the Common Core standards - either here or in other courses.

THE BASICS - The original Course:

Having taught Geometry for almost a decade, I've learned that one of the biggest challenges is simply the vocabulary. This first (and original) section is a very broad overview of Geometry and the language that it uses. If you've never heard this vocabulary, this will introduce it. If you have, this will reinforce it and put it into context.

Said another way there are a few different kinds of students who would benefit from this section:

  • Those who are about to take Geometry
  • Those who are taking Geometry and want a review or another perspective
  • Those who are curious as to the overall nature of Geometry but not wanting to take time for an entire course

Some of the vocabulary and concepts discussed are used in every day conversations, whereas others are specialized and not usually found in everyday conversation (I'm looking at you, hypotenuse!). Some of these terms SHOULD be familiar while others will not be. The course also includes a lot outside resources to practice as well as Udemy-style quizzes.

There's an old joke about what you remember from a college course five years after you've taken it. For Economics, it's supply and demand. For Chemistry, it's the periodic table is the organization of the elements. For English Composition, it's always start with an outline. This limited course is along those same lines: it will give you the general feeling for topics in Geometry without many of the details.

The first section could be watched in one sitting if you don't do any of the exercises. A better way to take it would be to target one day for a week to watch one video (less than 10 minutes) and then spending 20 minutes after each lecture to explore the additional material that's included.

SECTION 2 - Common Core Congruence Standards

First, a word about Common Core. IF you live in a state that has rigorous Mathematical Standards, Common Core is simply a nationalized version of a variation of what has been taught over the last 20 years. It stresses some new topics and ignores some traditional stuff, but it’s simply a road map for a GIANT TOPIC. In 180 school days, only so much can be learned about any given field - these standards attempt to point out what’s important and what’s not: Both in general and related to what will be on State/National assessment tests.

There are 13 standards related to “Congruence” in the New Common Core and this section explains (at varying levels of depth in it’s first iteration) all of them. I attacked this first because it had transformations in it and it was the one topic I knew I would have to do a fair amount of research on before I could teach it.

This section is primarily for students:

  • Interested in learning more about transformations and why they have become a new item of importance
  • Need more and different examples of two column proofs and strategies for solving these.

Who this course is for:

  • This course is meant for those wanting to explore introductory concepts at a high level. This would include a student who is about to take a geometry class, is feeling behind in their geometry class, or is wanting review before an end of semester exam. This class covers most of the vocabulary and concepts related to shapes, area, perimeter, volume, and angles.
  • Students looking for a more in-depth course should NOT take this course. This basic review does NOT cover proof, trig, pythagorean theorem, transformations, or extensive calcuations.