Remember to include movements for left, right, forward and backward. A complete tutorial for use of the applet, with easy to follow instructions, is provided at the site. Ask students to create rectangles using only one 45-degree angle at a time, between the arrows. After a few minutes, discuss why it is not possible to make a rectangle using only 45-degree angles. Ask students if they can find any examples of where a 45-degree angle was used in the classroom environment.
Students share their answers with the class.
After the students have identified 45-degree angles in the classroom, students should return to the interactive applet and create as many different rectangles as possible using any of the buttons. They can create rectangles that are long and thin, those that are short and almost square, and those that are the largest. As students experiment, they will begin to understand the relationship between the lengths of the sides and the resulting shape of the rectangle. As students investigate the rectangles, ask the following guiding questions. In performing these tasks, students are increasing their understandings of location and movement by using various related mathematical concepts in geometry and measurement.