Experiences

Learning about topic conic

Mária Čiripová

Slovakia

Lower Secondary School

Maths

Teaching in class

Direct

The aim of this lesson was to familiarize with the new concept of conic, find it in the real life, and know how to recognize it and to know how to write it down using the centre equations. I worked with the students with the help of data projector and the presentation created on the PC and also in the form of group discussion in the class. At first I asked them whether they know the term and if not what they think that it is according to its name. Some of the guesses were fine and some were funny. In the presentation I showed them simulation of the cut of conical surface where were nicely shown individual types. Then I wrote on the blackboard the explanation of the names and individual typed that they saw in the presentation. We also talked in short about the history. When I mentioned the date since is this term used the students smiled. Then I asked them whether they can imagine conic in the real life and whether they already met with these terms in real life. By this way we went through circle, ellipse, parabola and hyperbola. I showed them pictures for each type and also students mentioned their ideas. They wrote everything into their notebooks with a short definition in maths and central equations. Students discussed with each other, they participated in presentation and cooperated with me. I was satisfied with the course of the lesson, there was a relaxed ambiance, students were able to laugh and think of some examples which were sometimes funny. I think that they perceived the lesson the same way.