Intro to Bases and Heights of Parallelograms

This is an alternative development leading to students being able to calculate the area of a parallelogram and a triangle by identifying and using the base and height. I have found that students have a very difficult time identifying the base and height of parallelograms, and even more so with triangles. This development is intended to strengthen their ability to visualize how a parallelogram can become a rectangle, to then identify the base and height of the rectangle, and hence the area of each shape. We then move to giving the student a triangle to start with, visualize the parallelogram, then the rectangle. We then guide the student to compress this process so that the can identify the eventual base and height of the rectangle by inspection.

By Todd Steinhauer