 |
| You wanna figure out this mess?! |
Nothing like a good criminal investigation to liven up geometry!
CSI: Geometry– the Complete eBook is a collection of nine different geometrically inspired mathematical puzzles with a little international pizazz. The nine puzzles intend to target specific Geometry units and add a little flair to the ordinary challenge question.
Name: CSI: Geometry the Complete eBook
Suggested Grade Level: 7-12 (Geometry & Trigonometry skills)
Math Concepts: Geometry content (listed below)
Interdisciplinary Connections: Too many to list
Teaching Duration: 27-45 Days (or there ‘bouts)
Cost: $25 for an eBook with 9 separate CSI themed puzzles
PDF Version: CSI: Geometry the Complete eBook @ TPT
 |
| Is today Thursday or Monday? |
The Product: Student conduct an investigation to determine who the criminal is in each case. Teachers have an option of having student present their evidence in front of a jury of their peers.
After finishing my CSI: Algebra eBook it was easy to see that a sequel had to be in the works. The eBook has been my most popular item by far and was getting super cool
comments like“
“I am excited to try these with my Algebra students! I have tried one of them and got great results! Thank you!”
“Kids loved it!”
So I put on my STEM shoes, my International hat, and my Hollywood socks to work and went about creating 9 super-duper geometry projects. But here’s the problem, they are super-duper time consuming to make. I pick a chapter of topics from a textbook, find a world region that fits the themes from that chapter, research that world region for interesting authentic problem, create cool, interesting authentic problems (and my soul doesn’t allow me to duplicate problem types! They all have to be different), the puzzles have to solve to a cryptic text message, I have to draw funny faces and necessary sketches and then I have to write attempt-at-an-amusing criminal narrative to tie it all together and add swagg. BAAAAH!
 |
| Don’t you have better things to do? (Answer –Apparently not). |
I mapped the puzzles to the curriculum in the widely used Glencoe Geometry, although in my experience most Geometry books have the same stuff. The way these projects work is that each puzzle has 6 “scenes” which will uncover a mystery variable. These six mystery variables will be used to decode a cryptic text message and if everything is correct, the result will match one of the six suspects.
Based on the experience in my own classroom, students are actively engaged in the puzzle solving element in my CSI assignments. Top students brighten up because it is “something different” and hard to motivate students will pick the pencil to give it a crack. These assignments are designed to be “math-first” projects. By that I mean, the Geometry skill is explicitly what the students are doing, the rest works as window dressing. In my career, I’ve found most math projects I’ve attempted from books are typically not mathematically rigorous enough and the math concept I intended to teach was lost. In my experience, students will complete interesting assignments and I’ve put a lot of sweat into making each of these puzzles interesting and fun.
Depending on the puzzle, you’ll find that some of the problems are hard. Some puzzles may depend on students doing 5-6 problems correct in a row. Lots of word problems. By design, I use a variety of levels of problems to keep a variety of learners engaged and challenged. If you use any of these assignments I strongly such that you help and hint, as you desire.
In this product you will receive ALL NINE different puzzles. I have created these puzzles to map the curriculum to nine different chapters of most Algebra 1 textbooks.
Unit 1: Shapes, Lines & Angles (South Africa): Distance and Midpoints, Segment Addition, Polygons, Writing Equations of Lines, Parallel Lines
Unit 2: Logic & Reasoning: Logic and Conjectures (France):, Compound Statements, Venn Diagrams, Deductive Reasoning
Unit 3: Triangles (the Caribbean): Triangle Classification, Interior and Exterior Angles, Triangle Congruence, the Centers of a Triangle
Unit 4: Proportions & Similarity (Canada): Ratios and Scale Factors, Similar Polygon, Parts of Similar Polygons
Unit 5: Trigonometry (India): Pythagorean Theorem, Special Right Triangles, Sine, Cosine & Tangent, Law of Sine & Cosine, Angles of Depression and Elevation
Unit 6: Circles (United Kingdom): Circumference, Radius, Diameter and Chords, Angles and Arcs, Tangents, Equations of Circles
Unit 7: Area (Chicago, USA): Calculating Areas of Polygons & Circles, Area Dissection, Area of Irregular Figures, Geometric Probability
Unit 8: Surface Area & Volume (the Mediterranean): Calculating Surface Area and Volume many figures, Nets, Congruent and Similar Solids
Unit 9: Transformations (South America): Translations, Rotations, Reflections, Dilations, Tessellations
If you are teaching Geometry and are looking for fun review activities and enrichment problems, I have you covered. Student Satisfaction Guaranteed or I’ll give you your money back. Be the cool teacher 🙂
