Cove students apply trigonometry lesson to real world skills

By NATALIE MARSHALL

Special to Leader-Press

How tall is a military van container? How tall and how long is Lea Ledger Auditorium? Although it is impossible for students to measure with a tape from the top of the building to the ground, they still found a successful way to determine the height and length of the facility.

Teachers Donna Brewer, James Buzzard and Carol Hawkins took their classes outdoors for the trigonometry lesson. One of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills required standards is for students to understand how to use measuring tools, such as a clinometer. In preparation, the classes went outside to premeasure distance with a rolling measurement instrument. A line of tape was placed by various structures and objects, like a telephone pole. Clinometers are often used in the profession of meteorology, as well as in forestry and surveying.

In the classroom, students used preprinted cardstock to create their own clinometer. A clinometer is used to determine the height of very tall objects using the angle of elevation and angle of depression to calculate their observation. After cutting the clinometer into the correct shape, students then rolled their cardstock on one side leaving a circular portion to look through. The bottom portion of the clinometer displayed the measurement markings where an added a piece of string with a paperclip and pencil weight fell over the numbers. The trigonometry lesson uses an ancient tool, clinometer, along with twenty-first century skills that help prepare students to enter the workforce where they will be expected to collaborate with each other.

“This is the second year in a row we chose this project and students stay highly engaged during the activity,” he said.

As a collaborative team, one student looked through the cylinder as another observed which numbers the string fell beside. Each team then records its findings of several objects located around the school. Hawkins explained that students would use tangents to solve the height of each object measured.

Senior Jazz Mendez said that he found the height of six different objects.

“It is very interesting comparing the architectural structures compared to our own height,” he said, happy to be working outdoors as he continued walking around with classmates to measure a tree, telephone pole and other buildings on campus.