Poster: Windmills In Trigonometry Class

A set of windmill teaching aids has been developed for use by high school trigonometry teachers with the goal of bridging the gap between trigonometry and real world systems. The University of Saint Thomas created 16 mechanisms, and a teacher guides, that make up the Trigonometric Windmill teaching aids in response to a need expressed by the math curriculum coordinator in the Edina public school district. Working closely with the mathematics coordinator, an engineering student at the University of St. Thomas developed a variable set of systems that could assist students in understanding the equation し(t)= Asin(のt+l), with a specific focus on the terms A(amplitude) and の (angular velocity). There were four primary goals for this project: (1) to open lines of communication between the University Saint Thomas and local PK-12 teachers, (2) to aid in the teaching of trigonometry lessons through the use of hands-on activities created to satisfy MN Academic Standard #9.2.1., (3) to incorporate engineering content into math lessons, and (4) to hone students’ visual-to-mathematic conversion skills, which has been recognized as an increasingly important skill for students to possess. This paper discusses the collaboration process and presents a lesson plan that can be replicated by other schools.