Unit Plan

Class: Mathematics 8

Unit: Pythagorean Theorem

Lesson Topic: History of Pythagorean Theorem

Class Procedures Description Purpose/Reflection

Do Now (Class For the Do Now, the students will The purpose of this
Warm-Up) answer four questions that involve warm up is to prepare
solving for x where it is necessary to the students for
either square or take the square root squaring and taking
of a number in order to get x by itself. the square root of
numbers in order to
solve the Pythagorean
theorem.

Lesson Introduction I will present a very brief history on Students will have a
Pythagoras so that the students will knowledge of how the
have a knowledge of the origins of the theorem was
theorem. discovered, used, and
popularized.
Thousands of years ago, in the 6th century BCE in Greece,
Pythagoras was the leader of a kind of math and philosophy
religious movement. Pythagoras is famous for the Pythagorean
Theorem named after him which states that for right triangles,
2 + 2 = 2 . This means that if you square the lengths of the
smaller two sides of a right triangle and add those values
together, you get the square of the length of the longest side.
Long before Pythagoras lived, people in Babylonia (in present-
day Iraq) and in India knew about that pattern in right triangles
and had been using it for centuries, but Pythagoras is credited
with proving it.
Lesson Todays lesson will introduce the This lesson with the
Pythagorean Theorem to the students. use of the candies is
They will learn the Pythagorean mean to be fun and
Formula as well as how and why it is engaging. I think this
used. way of presenting the
proof is easy to for the
Key Vocabulary: students to
-Pythagorean Theorem understand. After the
-Right Triangle lesson is completed,
-Hypotenuse the students will get to
-Leg eat the candy.
-Square
-Square Root
 To show the students the proof of the
Theorem, I will provide the following

idea.

However, instead of using this exact

image, I will re-create the image under
the document camera with starburst
candies.

Assignment

This assignment allows for students to

discover and understand more in
depth, the relationships between the
legs of the triangle and the
Pythagorean Theorem.
Homework The students will be given a This will get students
worksheet that has simple numbers prepared to use the
for them to plug into the formula. They formula to solve for the
 will not be given triangles, but they will lengths of the sides of
be given values for a, b, and c to plug the triangle.
into the theorem to get some practice.

Lesson Topic: Pythagorean Theorem and Formula

Class Procedures Description Purpose/Reflection

Do Now (Class Todays Do Now will show several This is meant to

Warm-Up) different types of triangles. Students activate the students
will be asked to categorize them. background knowledge
There will acute triangles, obtuse, and on different types of
right triangles as well as equilateral, triangles. They will
scalene, and isosceles triangles. review them so they
have a better idea of
which triangles we are
talking about in terms
of the Pythagorean
Theorem.
Review We will have a review on yesterdays
material regarding the proof of the
Pythagorean Theorem. Students will
review the key vocabulary.

Key Vocabulary:
-Pythagorean Theorem
-Right Triangle
-Hypotenuse
-Leg
-Square
-Square Root

Lesson Todays lesson will be finding the The purpose of the

missing hypotenuse of a right triangle. lesson is to help
The lesson will help students students recognize
understand that right triangles are the that the Pythagorean
only type of triangle we are able to theorem only applies
perform the Pythagorean theorem on. to right triangles.
Students will be able to recognize the
right triangle by its right angle.
Through this lesson, I also want my
students to get in the habit of drawing
and arrow from the right angle to the
side across from it and recognize that
 this arrow will always be pointing to
the hypotenuse. I will show this by
displaying images of triangles on the
smart board. As a class, we will also
go through examples of how to use
the given side lengths of a triangle to
solve for the missing hypotenuse.
Assignment Students will be given nine problems This will introduce the
in which they will be asked to solve for process to the
the missing hypotenuse. The given students and give
triangles will have values assigned to them an introduction
the legs (a and b) and given the into using the formula.
formula, the students will be able to
solve for the hypotenuse (c).

Materials:
-Worksheet
-Pencil
-Calculator
Homework . For the students homework, I will
assign a page with twelve different
problems in which the triangles are
laid out on a grid. The triangles will not
have values assigned to them, but
students will be asked to count out on
the grid the side lengths of the
triangles. After obtaining the side
lengths they will be asked to find the
missing hypotenuse.

Lesson Topic: Solving for the Missing Side Length

Class Procedures Description Purpose/Reflection

Do Now (Class For Todays Do Now, the students will This self-starter is
Warm-Up) be given a half sheet of paper with meant to be a
four triangles laid out on a coordinate formative assessment
grid. The students will need to identify so that I can see
the hypotenuse and legs of the four where they are at in
triangles. They will then need to use their understanding of
the grid to find the side lengths of the the material thus far.
triangle and finally using the
Pythagorean theorem, they will solve
for the hypotenuse. They will turn
these in to me.
Review As class, we will do a short review The purpose of the
where we solve for the missing review is to emphasize
hypotenuse. There will be 4 different the difference in the
triangles we will solve. As emphasized process we used in the
in the previous lesson, students will previous lesson
need to identify the right angle and compared to the
review that the side across from the current lesson.
right angle is always the hypotenuse.
Again, vocabulary will be reviewed.
Key Vocabulary:
-Pythagorean Theorem
-Right Triangle
-Hypotenuse
-Leg
-Square
-Square Root

Lesson Todays lesson is solving for the

missing leg or side length of the
triangle. The students will learn how to
use the Pythagorean theorem to solve
for the side length (a or b) when they
have been given a value for the
hypotenuse (c). Again, I will
emphasize that the students will need
to identify the right angle and the
hypotenuse so that they recognize
whether or not they have been given a
value for the hypotenuse or not. They
will also learn that when solving for a
missing leg, it doesnt matter whether
they are solving for a or b, the formula
will yield the same answer either way.
We will understand as a class how to
distinguish the process between
solving for a missing leg and solving
for the missing hypotenuse.
Assignment The students will be given a The purpose of this
worksheet with twelve different assignment is to give
triangles. The triangles in these the students practice
problems will only be triangles in using the formula in
which students are asked to solve for the process to solve
a missing side length. The hypotenuse for the missing side
will be given for every triangle in each length.
problem.
 Materials:
-Worksheet
-Pencil
-Calculator

Homework . The students will be given a This homework

worksheet to take home that will assignment will help
include sixteen different triangles. the students recognize
Some of the triangles will have a when they are being
missing side length, others will have a asked to solve for the
missing hypotenuse. hypotenuse and when
they are being asked
to solve for a missing
side length.

Lesson Topic: Application of Pythagorean Theorem

Class Procedures Description Purpose/Reflection

Do Now (Class Todays Do Now will be given to the This is for me to gage
Warm-Up) students on a half sheet of paper. whether or not they
They will have four different right were able to effectively
triangles in which two of them they will recognize what they
be asked to be solved for the missing are being asked to
side length. The remaining two solve for from the
triangles will have the students solve previous nights
for the missing hypotenuse. Upon homework.
completion, the students will turn their
Do Now in.
Lesson The focus of todays lesson will be The purpose of this
application of the Pythagorean lesson is to help
theorem. The examples will be fairly students recognize
simple and straightforward, but they when it is pertinent to
will require students to draw pictures use the Pythagorean
given a word problem. They will use theorem in real-life
the information given to label their situations.
picture and identify which side of the
triangle they are solving for. The main
idea of the lesson will be to help the
students understand how to pull out
relevant information from a word
problem to create and label a picture
that looks like what they are used to
solving.
Assignment The assignment will be a worksheet
given with twelve different word
problems. They will not include
pictures, students will be asked to
draw pictures that represent the word
problem.
They will be asked be asked
questions such as:
-If a rectangular sandwich that is 4 in.
by 5 in. is cut diagonally, what is the
length of the diagonal cut?
-Questions involving using side walk
paths (legs) vs. cutting across a field
of grass (hypotenuse).

Materials:
-Worksheet
-Pencil
-Calculator

Homework . Students will only be required to take This is so they can be

home what they did not finish in class. prepared for their
wrap-up and
assessment.

Lesson Topic: Wrap-Up/Assessment

Class Procedures Description Purpose/Reflection

Review/Wrap-up As a class we will review the different

uses we have of the Pythagorean
theorem. We will have a discussion
about when it is appropriate to use
which method and how to identify
what they are solving for.
Assessment For this assessment, I want the This will be give me an
students to work individually. The understanding of
students will be given twenty four where the students are
different questions. They will be given at in their
questions involving the proof (i.e. the understanding and
squares method introduced using ultimately give me an
starbursts), they will be given idea of what we still
problems in which they will need to need to review to
solve for the missing hypotenuse, prepare the students
problems in which they will solve for
the missing side length, and for their standardized
application problems. They will have tests.
the rest of the period to work on their
assessment. The last ten minutes, I
will allow for the students to work in
pairs to clear up any last minute
confusion.