Geometry

2012-2013

Christopher Colvin
St. Stephen's Episcopal School

 

 Course Information  Assignments Links
Euclids Elements Byrne's Euclid  Geometry in Art & Architecture



Advice, Assistance, Addresses:

There are several ways you can contact me for advice and assistance. The best way is to speak to me while at school (before or after class, at lunchtime, or look for me at my carrell). The next best way is to send me email. You can always schedule a conference. Here is my teaching schedule.

Course Materials

Book: Schultz et al., HRW Geometry, and the SSES Geometry notebook (both available at the bookstore). There is an online version of the notebook.

Notebook: You are expected to take notes in class and from the assignments in the book. You will find that your own notes are often more helpful than the book. Please feel free to meet with me to look over your notes and make sure they are correct.

Nota Bene: You should understand that the hefty HRW book is not so much a textbook a source book for homework problems. Your notebook will prove to be a more compact and useful manual for geometry. Please make sure your notebook is accurate and useful for you. A good notebook your key to success in this class.

Equipment:

compass and protractor
scientific calculator
straight edge (metric ruler)
pencils
brain


Computer Resources:

You can find much information and materials relevant to the course at the:

St. Stephen's Geometry Center

There are many resources on the web for geometry. A complete text book with helpful illustrations and explanations can be found here.
Believe it or not, a wide variety geometry clips are posted on YouTube. Type in the name of most any topic, and you will find someone slightly goofy or serious offering an explanation. One good source for all kinds of math topics can be found here. Another is here. And yet another! And one more just for algebra! (Hint for student who finds the course challenging or boring -- take a look at these sites!)

Assignments will be given each day at the end of class and posted on this page (see below).


Policies:

Attendance:
Please read and understand the attendance regulations in the student handbook. I will follow them.

Homework and Grading:
Please do your own homework. You cannot learn by copying. Homework is due on the date given on the assignment sheet. Be sure you understand what the homework assignment is before you leave class! I check homework randomly. If you do not have the assignment when I check, you have one day to show it to me (for a lesser mark), otherwise I count it as missing. Always show the work necessary to solve a problem. A list of answers is not considered a completed homework.

Every week, I will check student notebooks. I generally give one quiz each week, usually on Friday. There will be four tests in each term.

Please, save all your work (notes, handouts, quizzes, tests). It will very much help you with tests and exams. (Yes, exams and tests are cumulative.) It is also your record in case there is any dispute with my gradebook.

Homework and daily work count for 10% of your course grade.
Quizzes count for 20% of your course grade.
Tests count for 70% of your course grade.

As you can see, the emphasis is on knowing the material (tests, quizzes) -- and the way to know the material is to make the effort (homework) to learn it well.

For more information about math department grading policies, see the departmental handout.

All students will be expected to use and check their email every school day since I will use email to communicate certain assignments or to keep in touch with students in case of absence (theirs or mine).

If you have difficulties with any aspect of the course, please tell me about it. If you want extra help, we can schedule a conference after school. In some cases, I can require a student to attend a conference. A student who misses a scheduled conference will be counted as absent from a class and turned in as absent. Students with a failing grade in the course are required to have a conference once every rotation of the schedule.



Assignments
Spring Term 2013

18.3 - Introduction to Chapter 7.
19.3 - HRW 434, #s 27-36.
20.3 - HRW 442-443, #s 10-24 even numbers, 25 & 26.
21.3 - HRW 443, #s 28-32; HRW 449-50, #s 17-19, 24-32.
22.3 - Quiz. Worksheets.

25.3 - HRW 457, #s22-32. Fill in notebook to 7.4.
26.3 - HRW 465-66, #s 21-35.
27.3 - HRW 474-475, #s 20-30 even, 32-37.
28.3 - Review HRW 489-492, #s 1-28.

Easter Weekend

2.4 -
3.4 - HRW 8.1 (read it!) 503-4, #s 23, 24, 26, 35-38.
4.4 - Algebra review.
5.4 - Algebra review

8.4 - Review packet.
9.4 - HRW 513, #s 28-32 and 38 & 39; HRW 512, #s 8-13.
10.4 - Review.
11.4 - Review.
12.4 - TEST.

15.4 - Worksheet on ratio and proportion.
16.4 - Worksheet on geometric mean.
17.4 - Worksheets on geometric mean and side-splitting theorem (8.4).
18.4 - HRW section 8.5. 537-38, #s 11-17, 21-25.
19.4 - Quiz.

22.4 - Prove 8.5.2, 8.5.3, and 8.5.4. (= 539-540 #s 27-41 - do not use flow chart format).
23.4 - HRW 548-49, #s 14-16, 23-25, 29-35.
24.4 - HRW 554-558, #s 1-24.
25.4 - Review.
26.4 - TEST.

29.4 - Introduction to circles.
30.4 - HRW 570, #s 27-43.
1.5 - HRW 577-78, #s 10-15, 19-24.
2.5 - HRW 585-86, #S 11-28.

long weekend

6.5 - Picnic Table consultation.
7.5 - HRW 594, #s 15-27.
8.5 - Worksheets.
9.5 - Picnic work. Read section 9.6 especially p. 612, HRW 615 #s 17-19, 25-27.
10.5 - Picnic sketches due. Quiz.

13.5 - Picnic models due.
14.5 -
15.5 - Picnic Table projects due.
16.5 -
17.5 - TEST.

20.5 -
21.5 -
22.5 - Exam Review.
23.5 - Exam Review.
24.5 - Exam Review.

Final Exam: Friday 31 May 2013 @ 8:30AM.

Pythagoras & Euclid (from Raphael's "School of Athens")

"This, then, is what learning (mathesis) is, recollection of the eternal ideas in the soul; and this is why the study that especially brings us the recollection of these ideas is called the science concerned with learning (mathematike).  Its name thus makes clear what sort of function this science performs.  It arouses our innate knowledge, awakens our intellect, purges our understanding, brings to light the concepts that belong essentially to us, takes away the forgetfulness and ignorance that we have from birth, sets us free from the bonds of unreason; and all this by the favor of Hermes-Thoth, who is truly the patron of this science, who brings our intellectual endowments to light, fills everything with divine reason, moves our souls towards nous, awakens us as it were from our heavy slumber, through our searching turns us back upon ourselves, through our birthpangs perfects us, and through the discovery of pure nous, leads us to the blessed life.  And so, dedicating this composition to him, we proceed to delineate the theory of the science of mathematics."

Proclus, A Commentary on the First Book of Euclid’s Elements, 5th c. A.D.