Students have been studying the concept of similarity in Geometry.

In the spring students go to the football field, behind the school, to apply these skills to find the height of the two different size flagpoles. 

The first method used the shadows of a meter stick and the flagpoles.  The students found out in a recent class that the triangles formed by the sun were similar as long as the measurements were taken at very close times.  

The second method used mirrors.  The students place the mirrors on the track between a person and the flagpole.  Then the one student tried to find the tip of the flagpole in the mirror.  When the student found the tip of the flagpole in the mirror, the other students then measured the height to the student's eye, the distance to the mirror from the student, and the distance from the mirror to the pole. 

The students worked in groups of four to collect the need data.  Then the students drew pictures of each situation and labeled the drawings with the measurements they had collected.  Then ratios were set up.  This led to the calculated height of the two flagpoles. 

The first period class found that there were very long shadows, because the sun was much lower than it was during the seventh period class.