Alex: The Clock Tower

This project resulted from the collaboration of a computer aided drafting teacher (pre-engineering), Chris Bond, and a math teacher, Lee Cable, (Hewitt-Trussville High School) to provide higher math expectations in CT and real life application in mathematics. As a hands-on, technology based project this activity demonstrates use of the Pythagorean Theorem, Sine, Cosine and Tangent to find unknown heights of objects and can be adapted for use by the computer aided drafting or mathematics teacher. Clinometers are used as a surveying tool and AutoCAD is used as a drawing tool. Students use a clinometer and a ruler or a tape measure to find and then record the length and angle measurements of a right triangle to determine unknowns. This information is then used to find unknown lengths and angles and to then create a drawing in AutoCAD. Proportion and scale will be used to draw a scale drawing of the clock tower at the new Hewitt-Trussville High School. In the mathematics classroom, students will produce scale drawings using graph paper instead of AutoCAD. This lesson will need to be adapted for use by other schools by selecting a different building structure for measure.