Students in our high school geometry class headed outdoors to the school track for two days in late May to measure their shadows — an inter-active assignment that was part of their unit on trigonometry.

Faculty member Gina Wilson came up with the creative hands-on activity as a way to help the students use trigonometry ratios, such as Sine, Cosine, and Tangent, to find missing side lengths and angles in triangles.

“The project incorporated all that the students have been learning in our trigonometry unit and allowed them to practice their knowledge in an unconventional setting,” Mrs. Wilson said. For the project, the students had to measure their heights and the length of their shadow and then use trig ratios to calculate the angle of elevation to the sun.

“The students were surprised to find that their shadows were longer earlier in the morning, which effected the angles,” Mrs. Wilson said. “It was fun to watch them make connections like that throughout the project.”