Introducing pupils to the study of conic sections – circles, ellipses, parabolas and hyperbolas. Through these, pupils explore some of the history of the development of mathematical thought, mathematical representations and conceptualisations and the application of mathematics in architecture.
Emphasis is put on spacial visualisation and the curves are constructed using different methods using the time-honoured tools of pairs of compasses and protractor.
This Main Lesson incorporates a trip off campus photographing anything that approximated conic sections. Pupils then use Cartesian equations in order to model the shapes of the objects they photographed.