The Dread of π

Introducing Length and Perimeter for High school Students

Although this topic is vigorously taught in primary, we still receive some students that struggle with it in High School. Depending on the class, I would possibly complete a quick quiz to gauge their level, then possible start at Stage 3 (I posted some web-links that would automatically generate perimeter and area of basic shapes. Stage 4, however, starts to introduce Circles and the figure pi.

There are typically three type of students who will leave your lesson.

Student A: Will completely get the entire picture and be able to infer their learnt skills to other areas of Mathematics.

Student B: Will be able to apply the practical applications of the formula but may unfortunately have not fully grasped the full picture!

Student C: Will not be able to apply or just rote learn the formula and forget it before they even begin to line up for lunch at the canteen.

Thankfully I have had all three types of students (and mixed variations) after all my lessons. But you might ask how?

Well according to John Hattie, the classroom teacher/parent is the most powerful resource for student success, but starting out as a new teacher of mathematics I wouldn’t or couldn’t apply the best practices in my classes ALL THE TIME.

Why? Inexperience, wondering if the lesson will fall apart, not knowing my students well and how they learn. It’s a learning curve! After some time of experience, I can actually proclaim that I can successfully teach these concepts with complete confidence to any class of any level. I am a firm believer that any student can learn anything (provided we have all the time in the world.

I have attached some resources in my Webpage and you are more than welcome to copy, edit, download, republish, and use freely. You can even take out my tacky logo ( I was just a little excited), because I am a firm believer of Free education for all. The worksheet I created can be used as a quick quiz to differentiate learning abilities, but it can also serve as a differentiation activity on its own. For instance, you can repeat the questions I created using decimals! Or repeating the same worksheet with different numbers at the end of the topic to test understanding.

I also used a graphic software by the name of Geogebra, but honestly you can just as well do it with a piece of paper, and any circular objects or circular lids at home. In one class I used the formula and then we went backward to work out what is pi.

Please leave me your feed back.

How did you go with the resources?

What worked what didn’t?

When was your best or worst lesson when you introduced a new concept in Mathematics?