When geometry students arrived at class on Monday, October 8th, they were able to pick a hat out of Mrs. Petersen’s collection. Inspired by these hats, students wrote conditional statements such as “If it is St. Patrick’s Day, then it is March 17th.” The interactive lesson continued as students studied converse statements where you switch the hypothesis and the conclusion such as “If it is March 17th, then it is St. Patrick’s Day.” To help them remember the importance of their new vocabulary word, converse, students took off their shoes and switched feet! The awkward feeling and connection to Converse brand shoes, will help students remember to switch the hypothesis and conclusion of their statements.
The parallel lines in Mrs. Petersen’s silly outfit was the next transition to conditional and converse statements. “If parallel lines are cut by a transversal, then alternate interior angles are congruent.” The converse is also true and allows us to prove parallel lines by using angle relationships. “If two lines are cut by a transversal and the alternate interior angles are congruent, then the lines are parallel.”
We have to be careful! Sometimes the converse is false! Such as “If it is Thanksgiving, then it is Thursday.” turns to a false converse “If it is Thursday, then it is Thanksgiving.” (Some of us would like to have Thanksgiving on Thursday!)
Wearing a hat and switching shoes will help these kinesthetic learners in the coming weeks as we learn more geometry statements – both conditional and converse.
