Well we are progressing nicely through the Circular Functions Unit. Students are getting very comfortable with the radian measures on the unit circle and have now moved on to learning exact values/coordinates. Students have come to the understanding that once they know the exact values in quadrant one of the coordinate plane, all they need to be able to do is reflect these coordinates into the other four quadrants, while being mindful of the negative x in quadrants 2 and 3, and the negative y in quadrant 3 and 4.
In Lesson 4 we looked at solving trig equations. We needed to step back to revisit all of our factoring skills from grade 11 precalculus. We talked about the ways to factor: factor by gcf, factoring a basic trinomial, factoring a difference of squares and factoring by grouping. Students are withdrawing this previous knowledge in order to transfer these skills to solving trig equations. The CAST rule is very useful for this lesson as students need to identify the correct quadrants in which the solution can be found based on the sign of the trigonometric ratio.
We will be having a quiz on Thursday Feb 17th - the quiz is used "for" learning - as a formative assessment. To help students understand what they know, and what they need to work on. For the quiz, students will need to be able to convert from degrees to radians and vice versa as well as identify exact values. They will also need to complete a unit circle with all of the missing pieces - radians, exact values, and tangent ratios. Remember the tangent ratio is the value of y/x.
The first unit test will be coming up soon. The date will be posted soon.
Thank you!
