Unit Circle Table

I was searching our MTBoS database for unit circle ideas when I found this post by Henri Piciotto called The Human Unit Circle. A teacher makes cards, takes students outside, and they form a human unit circle and then the sine and cosine curve.

Mine is not as kinesthetic but still kind of cool.

First I printed the cards on blue and green card stock {in keeping with the theme of my room of course}, cut, and laminated.



Then I thought about how I could create a perfect circle when I noticed the perfect prop- my circle table.

I used washi tape {love!} and Sharpies and ta-da:

I have 8 Trig students so we worked quadrant by quadrant. I passed out the cards and ask students to decide if they were cosine or sine of our 'special angles' and then pair up. 

Next I asked them to go to the table and put their cards in the correct place. We finished all four quadrants and then they brought up patterns they noticed right away.

"The numbers for 30 and 60 are just flipped."

"The numbers on the same color of tape are the same except for negatives."

"The numbers for all the 45's are the same except for negatives."

Finally they took their INBs to the table and copied down the numbers, going back after that to fill in the radians and degrees for each angle.

Better than me just putting it on the board.