Geometry Lessons for the SMART Board
The SMART Technologies Corporation manufactures the SMART Board, an interactive whiteboard marketed to schools, businesses and government offices. Even the most basic SMART Board 600 series offers features such as touch recognition, digital ink, pen trays and SMART Notebook collaborative learning software that can be used to enhance geometry lessons.
SMART Boards can help engage students with lessons in any subject area, but the SMART Board's display and features naturally compliment math lessons in areas like geometry.
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Measuring Angles
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SMART Notebook software allows teachers and students to measure the angle of shapes drawn on the SMART Board. Taking this measurement theme a step further, students can find drawings and photographs online and use the SMART Notebook's math tools to measure the angles of real-world objects, such as the pyramids in Egypt. Teachers can challenge students to think of real-world objects representing different geometric shapes, measuring each image in front of the class.
Creating Images
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Math Investigations software includes pictures of different geometric shapes joined together to create images for students to view for two to three seconds. The teacher then covers the image with the "raise screen" function of SMART Notebook software and lets students recreate the image in the notebooks. Even without the Math Investigations tools, teachers can create their own images with SMART Notebook software by connecting various triangles and quadrilaterals
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Finding Area
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Investigations in Number, Data and Space, referred to by educators as simply "Math Investigations," is a curriculum used by many school districts. The geometry content for fifth-grade Investigations asks students to find the area of different shapes. Using the SMART Board, students can either draw a shape with a pen, their finger or a shape tool. Students then label the width and length so the rest of the class can calculate the area.
Calculating Perimeter
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Students can also use images displayed on the SMART Board to calculate perimeter based on the length and width of a shape. Students can tap on the shape and increase or decrease the size of the shape. Students can also use the "Infinite Cloner" tool of SMART Notebook to create an infinite number of duplicates. This tool is helpful when students want to double the size of a shape to find the new perimeter. Students can simply clone the old shape and drag the clone against the original.
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