MATHS

SUNSHINE MATHS

At the end of Term 3, Year 8 Maths ELMS students undertook a project to apply their knowledge of Trigonometry in their own homes and gardens. Students were asked to measure the length of a shadow of any object around their home, a hedge, a wheelie bin, a book, etc, at two different times of day. The class then used sun position data from Geoscience Australia and their own knowledge of trigonometry ratios to calculate the height of the object and the compass bearing of its shadow.

Svetlana Beliavski, Alice Breidahl and Emma Griffingham

Maths ELMS teachers

I really enjoyed doing the Trigonometry Project as not only is it fun, it also allows me to get out of the house to measure the measurements even if it is just for 5 minutes. I learnt lots of things like how to use sine, cosine and tangent and I can apply knowledge obtained in class to real life situations when maybe I am roofing my house or maybe mapping things out.

Bernice Koh 8F

In doing this project, I learned that it is important to be extremely precise when taking measurements, and how to determine the height of an object with the sun's elevation and the length of the object's shadow. I also learned that the elevation of the sun changes daily and is unlikely to be the same at the same time on different days. 

At first, I wasn't expecting to have fun since I thought it was going to be difficult, but as I went on, it turned out that I really liked doing this project. Personally speaking, I think that there should be more projects like this. 

There was always this cool 'trick' on TV that allowed you to know the time of day with a shadow and an object, but I had never learned it since I was five back then and frankly, I didn't understand sin, cos and tan. You could use the formulas in this project to do just that, or on the other hand, you could apply the knowledge obtained in class to roof a house.

Skylar Yuen 8F

I enjoyed this project because it allowed me to think about how trigonometry can be used in real life. During the time we spent on this project, we learnt about how trigonometry can actually be useful in real life. I found this project was very interesting because it allowed us to explore a different method to use when measuring an object. This project taught me how to draw trigonometry diagrams and how we can use the information to find angles and side lengths. 

Azam Chelakkadan 8B

It was definitely a good change because we were able to go outside and just enjoy the sun a bit. Overall, the task was much more enjoyable than just sitting and doing work from a textbook. 

Mia Chen 8D

Antonina Mikhaylova 8G

Mai Sawaki 8G

Roshan Jivanjee 8G

Josh Strunnin 8J

Katie Yang 8B

Remika Sajit 8D