Lesson: Discovering Properties of Isosceles & Equilateral Triangles

Grade Level: 9-12th

Length of Lesson: 40-50 minutes

Materials & Technology

 Chromebook
 Activity Handout
 Gizmo
 Exit Ticket

Lesson Objectives:
 Students will explore the relationships between the sides and angles of isosceles and
equilateral triangles.
 Students will explore properties of angle bisector and perpendicular bisectors of
isosceles triangles
 Use properties of isosceles triangles to determine unknown angles and side lengths

California Content Standard(s):

G.CO.10 -Prove geometric theorems.
Prove theorems about triangles. Theorems include measures of interior angles of a
triangle sum to 180 degrees, base angles of isosceles triangles are congruent; the
segment joining midpoints of two sides of a triangle is parallel to the third side and
half the length; the medians of a triangle meet at a point.

Introduction/Warm-Up: (5 minutes)
 Students will find their assigned partner and sit next to them
 With their partner, students will answer the following questions using the given image:
o Which angle is opposite segment AC?
o Which sides are adjacent to angle A?
o What side is congruent to segment BC?
o Using the Triangle Angle Sum Theorem, what is the measure of angle B?
o How do you know segment AB is the shortest side?

 Answers will be reviewed and discussed as a class.

Gizmo Activity:
 Prior Knowledge (5-10 minutes)
o Students will be instructed to complete the prior knowledge portion of the
activity handout with their partner.
o Responses will be reviewed as a class

 Main Activity (25-30 minutes)

o Student will work in pairs to complete the Gizmo activity handout which will lead
them to discover relationships between the sides and angles of isosceles and
equilateral triangles.
Closing: (10 minutes)
 As students are finishing their activity or after they’ve finished, I will ask the following
questions:
o If a base angle of an isosceles triangle measures x, what are the measure of the
other two angles in terms of x?
o If the vertex angle of an isosceles triangle has a measure of x, what are the
measures of the other two angles?
o Can an equilateral triangle ever not be equiangular?

 An Exit ticket with two examples will be given to each student (via Google Forms). Each
student must complete it independently and submit before the end of class.