Drawing circles when I was young and bisecting lines when I was older were two of my favorite things to do in class. We had compasses that were not safety compasses but they worked. They held a pencil and did not slip and end up with a nautilus instead. Now they do. We need to change that
I am a 4th/5th grade teacher.
We are an urban school and our budget has been hit hard by all that is going on in the city, state, and country. Many of my students are learning English as one of two or more languages spoken at home. My class has a mix of different socio-economic levels and over a third of my students are on the free or reduced lunch plan. The class is diverse in its academic abilities as well and ranges from special education mainstreaming to gifted and talented identified students.
My Project
We have a set of flat, plastic compasses. They have clear circles in them that you hold down with a finger as you put a pencil in a hole on the arm and create the circle. The problems: they slide on the paper, the plastic circles fall out, students cannot measure using these compasses, and they break with alarming frequency. My students cannot really do anything with them but draw circles, occasionally. New compasses will allow my students to learn the full range of geometric possibilities from bisecting angles to creating triangles to measuring and copying line segments. They will take these skills into middle and high school.
Geometry one of the tools we have to understand the universe.
It's one of the oldest and most studied areas of mathematics. You are helping my students continue acquiring a deeper understanding of math and how it can affect their lives.
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