Transformation Lab

This is an extension of an activity that I found awhile ago from Andrew Shauver. He turned reflections into a 3Act problem, asking students to use knowledge of geometric properties to decide which reflection was executed the best.

I thought this was a great activity to go along with these notes which require students to perform their own transformations, much like the pictures from Andrew's lesson.

When I've done this I like to have the students do the measuring themselves. This could be individually or in groups. I think it's a great way to reinforce the geometric facts of what it means to be a reflection/translation/rotation/dilation and helps to show what a congruence transformation means. Really great conversations happen about side lengths, distances, parallel lines, etc. 

I really like to do this activity using the current students' own work. As they are doing their own transformations I walk around and take pictures of their attempts. Then I choose four and just drop them into a powerpoint to print out a sheet for them to use. I like to use at least two that look pretty good so it's not immediately obvious which is the best.

Then the next day I'll have ready one of these made using their own work:

I do strongly suggest using your own student work, but if you'd like a starting point feel free to use the above image and go over to Andrew's post where he's got an image for reflections. I unfortunately don't have any saved ones from rotations or dilation.