NCTM Math Standards

• Geometry
• Measurement
• Spatial Sense
• Communication and Connections
• Computation and Estimation
• Problem Solving

Objectives

After successfully completing this activity:

• Given a two dimensional view of a building, the student will select the corresponding 3-dimensional image (how the building looks if it is viewed from the ground).
• Given a variety of 2 dimensional shapes within a map, the student will demonstrate knowledge of the definition of a polygon by correctly identifying the shapes that are polygons.
• Given an overhead view map, the student will correctly identify the number of sides of a given polygon and its corresponding name based on the number of sides.

List of Materials for Group Activity

• Large sheets of paper
• Colored pencils or other drawing tools
• Optional: stencils of various shapes for drawing landmarks, building features, etc.

Accommodation Issues

The "Bird's Eye View" lesson is highly visual in nature, requiring students to look at and analyze complex presentations. For students who have low vision or who are blind, this lesson may be problematic. We suggest the use of pipe cleaners or similar tactile materials to create the lines, 2-dimensional shapes and 3-dimensional shapes discussed throughout this lesson. In addition, it may be useful for visually disabled students to work with a sighted peer in approaching this lesson; the latter may well have some creative approaches towards explaining the lesson.

Generating Problems for Additional Practice

• Take a walk around the school's playground or neighborhood. Ask students to discuss and reach a consensus about what various items would look like from the air (buildings, trees, mailboxes, etc.). Keep track of how many of these objects are not polygons, and how many represent each type of polygon (triangle, quadrilateral, pentagon, etc.).
• Using a Web search engine (Yahoo, WebCrawler, etc.), do a search on the words "aerial" and "view." Using these images, try to find and identify as many polygons as possible.

Suggestions for Additional Activities

• Invite a local pilot to discuss what s/he sees from the air and how this affects her/his process of flying.

We encourage teachers to send us examples of additional problems or activities that they have found useful; we will then post these on this page. E-mail us with your suggestions at planemath@infouse.com.