Lesson Plan: Angles of Elevation and Depression Mathematics
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to solve real-world problems that involve angles of elevation and depression.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- recognize which angle is an angle of depression and which angle is an angle of elevation,
- sketch a diagram from a real-world problem involving an angle of elevation or depression and use this to help solve the problem,
- use right trigonometry along with the law of sines and cosines to solve problems involving one or more angles of elevation.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- how to describe directions using a combination of angles and north, south, east, and west,
- using right triangle trigonometry to find unknown angle measures and side lengths,
- the law of sines and the law of cosines and how to use them to calculate unknown angle measures and side lengths.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- problems that do not involve angles of elevation or depression.
