Lesson Plan
Name: Heather A Airey
Type of Lesson: Webquest

Title: History of Pythagoras and his Theorem
Discipline and Topic: Mathematics; Introduction to Right Triangle Trig & Pythaorean Theorem
Target Population: Math B students (grade 10 and up)
Curriculum Links: Trig functions, Right Triangle Trig

Objectives:  Upon completion of this lesson, students should be able to better understand the inportance of Pythgoras' work and also take away an understanding that many ideas that we now accept as fact were once highly disputed.  Students will demonstrate this understanding through a ten minute PowerPoint presentation.

Media Literacy Objectives:
Basic: Take notes & gather data from non-print sources
          Use online information sources for research
Critical: Judge the accuracy & completeness of electronic information & support these     conclusions

Materials and Timing: Web, printed material (If needed, some students may have limited access to the Web outside of class.  If students have Web issues the instrucor may provide printouts of Web pages.), should take approximately one week to complete (assign on a Monday due Tuesday of the next week assuming block scheduling).  Students will be given time in class to use the computer, but will have to work at home if they cannot use their class time efficiently.

Scope and Sequence:
Day 1: Introduction of topic and assignment, students begin research in class.
Day 2: Students given another 1/2 block in the computer lab for research, the other 1/2 block is spent working in groups to distill information.
Day 3: Students work in the computer lab on presentations and for further research if needed.
Day 4: Presentations Due
Possible Day 5: Finish Presentations if needed.

Supplemental Materials: web evaluation form

Evaluation of Students:
Each student will be evaluated individually based on on the following: his/her contribution to the group (an average of the scores given by the other three group members), the overall presentation grade, and how well each student achieved the objectives.


Objective

0
1
2
3

Score

 

Note-taking and using on line sources

 
No notes.  No use of on-line sources
Minimal notes, most from printed sources.
Good deal of notes from both printed and online sources, but notes are not complete.
Complete notes.  Extensive use of online sources.

 

Website Evalutation

 

 
Student does not fill out evaluation.
Student completely fills out evaluation for some but not all sites or fills outn the evaluation incompletely for most sites.
Student fills out the evaluation form completely for most sites, or incompletely for all sites.
Student completely fills out the evaluation for  all websites used.

 

Use of time

 

 
Student did not use class time effectively.
Student did minimal work in class and no work outside of class to make up for it.
Student did some work in class and minimal outside of class.
Student used class time effectively.

 

Grade given by group members

 
Student did no work towards the project.
Student did minimal work, may have just researched one site.
Student contributed to research but not the presentation or the question and answer portion.
Student contributed to all portions of the project and was well-versed in the topic.

 

Presentation
No presentation developed.
Presentation was unorganized and poorly presented.  Questions were not answered by group members.
Presentation went smoothly.  Questions could have been handled better.
Exempelary presentation.  Questions handled well.  Group very knowledgable about the topic at hand.



Evaluation of Lesson: Students will walk away fom this lesson with an idea of the context of one of the most famous mathematical theorems, that scientific and mathematical advances are not discovered in a vaccuum.  This lesson will be successful if students can not only complete the WebQuest with a score of at least 11 out of 15, but can intelligently answer questiosns put to them by their peers on Pythagoras and his place in history.

Webquest                Table of Contents