Nicole+Horsley

// Describe a lesson that you currently teach without using the Smartboard. Describe how the lesson changed when using the board. Describe Student Outcomes. Reflect on how lesson was different when using the board. //   I just started teaching Investigations this year. A lesson came along that was not intended for the smartboard, it solely relied on unifix cubes and worksheets. Jen Kerr developed a tetromino format for the smartboard and passed it along (Thank you Jen!!). Upon review and discussion of the lessons involving using the unifix cubes for the tetromino puzzles, I adjusted and used the smartboard to techno-**rize** (we just watched //Meet the Fockers//!) the lesson.
 * Investigations Gd. 3 Unit 4 Perimeter, Area, and Angles **
 * Investigation 2, Sessions 2.1-2.3 Tetrominoes **

Session Focus: · Determine the geometric moves needed to prove or disprove congruence between two shapes · Understand that area is measured in square units · Understand that when measuring areas, the space being measured must be completely covered with no gaps or overlaps

The activity involved using unifix cubes in the shape of various tetronimo puzzle pieces to cover a paper 8 x 10 grid. The students had to use one shape at a time as well as all 5 shapes at once to cover the grid and then figure out how many shapes it took to cover it completely as well as calculate the area of the grid.

Students were extremely excited initially. They dug into creating the puzzles pieces and covering their first 8 x 10 grid. About half way through the second grid they lost steam. There was very little interest in continuing to cover the grids once they met a challenge in fitting the pieces together or realized they would need to reshape some of the puzzle pieces so that they would have enough of that particular shape to cover the grid.

After remodeling the tetromino smart file some, I opened it up to the students. They worked in groups on the smartboard placing the (infinitely cloned) puzzle pieces on a (locked) 8 x 10 grid. They worked on flipping and turning puzzle pieces to adjust and fit them together as well as working as a team to figure out #1 how to move the pieces and #2 how to make them all fit just right so that the grids were covered completely. Students were engrossed in our activity. We had just enough puzzles so that my students worked in pairs and each pair got to complete one puzzle. During and after the puzzles were complete we discussed area and how the shape of the puzzle piece effected the coverage area. We discussed what happened when pieces overlapped or there were gaps between the pieces. They took much more away from working with the smartboard than they did working on paper. An added benefit was being able to save the pages in the notebook file and being able to pull them back up on the board to compare to completed puzzles. They liked the tetrominoes puzzles so well that they even completed them during our indoor recess sessions!