Lesson Plan: Similar Polygons
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to use the properties of similar polygons to find unknown angles, side lengths, scale factors, and perimeters and solve algebraic expressions and equations.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- recognize that if two polygons are similar, then they contain angles of equal measure and corresponding sides that are in proportion,
- use proportionality of sides to prove similarity,
- use similarity to calculate unknown angle measures, scale factors, unknown side lengths, and perimeters,
- use similarity of polygons to solve real-world problems,
- use properties of similar polygons to form and solve equations to find unknown angle measures, lengths, and perimeters.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- ratios,
- finding a missing interior angle of a polygon using the sum of the angles of the polygon,
- solving linear equations,
- working with proportions.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- similarity problems involving area or volume.
