If I could nominate my favourite teaching tool-that-is-not-a-tool of late, it would be ramps. As of this week (written in Week 5, Term 4 2021) I have planned and executed lessons around ramps for Stage 4 Ratios and Rates, Stage 5 Trigonometry and Stage 5 Linear Relationships. Although the premise is very similar for each of these ramps lessons (how brilliant are right-angled triangles?), I will add some detail about how they developed over time.
The initial lesson
Ramps 1.0 started out as a trigonometry lesson for year 9 on my prac last year. I wanted material that was contextual and realistic – beyond the typical ladder against the wall-type problems. As usual, I went looking in Don Steward’s Median blog, where I came across his post on the steepness of wheelchair ramps.
Looking around the school, I saw ramps of different gradients, and that prompted me to consider whether a comparative task could be created.
I referred to the Design for Dignity website, which features the requirements for the height and length of ramps for Australia. These are expressed as ratios.
Considering that trigonometry is all about ratios, I asked them to first calculate the angle of incline for each of these types of ramps. Then they could figure out the range of angles that would identify ramps as kerb, step or threshold. I gave school ramp measurements to the students and asked them to find the angle of incline for each one, and asked them to check which ones were wheelchair accessible.
The students really enjoyed the context, as they saw their school in a different light – the ordinary ramps all of a sudden became visual cues for inclusivity, access and design. They were invested in finding out which ramps were indeed wheelchair-friendly, and what this meant for those trying to access parts of the school if some ramps were too steep. It was an early success!
Two new ramps lessons
This year on my internship I was teaching Stage 5 Linear Relationships and Stage 4 Ratios and Rates. Year 10 were getting quite sick of coordinate geometry after midpoint and distance between two points, so I had to introduce gradient in a different way. A non-teaching friend gave the interesting suggestion of getting students to plank on the ground and raise their bodies to create different gradients (which could have been a hit as well). Somehow that reminded me of investigating ramps, so I looked back at the lesson from last year and thought about how I could make it relevant to linear relationships.
I went around the school and took pictures of different ramps. I was fairly certain that they were wheelchair friendly, but I wanted the students to check for me. This time, I got them outside and measuring the ‘rise’ and the ‘run’ of the ramps with tape measures and trundle wheels.
A couple of things I learnt to get students to do before they leave the room, which may seem obvious to everyone else:
- Get students to label the rise and run of the ramps on the images on their worksheet before they go outside and measure the wrong part
- Get students to measure things in the classroom first before they ‘graduate’ to the outdoor arena
- List expectations for behaviour outside the classroom, and have students repeat them back to me
The worksheet was quite straightforward, just a table with images of the ramps for reference and parts to fill in. I also had a part where students had to rank the ramps from steepest to gentlest, and describe their process for doing so.
Coincidentally, Year 8s were studying ratios and rates, so I simply reused the same practical lesson with the class. All I really did was modify the table so that students were writing the rise and run of the ramps in ratio form, i.e. rise : run. The wording of Question 4 above was similar, except I swapped the word ‘gradient’ for ‘ratios’. I also asked students to use the Design for Dignity definitions of kerb, step and threshold ramps to help them label each type of ramp.
In terms of the lesson, I took my learning points from Year 10 and followed them through with Year 8 – I made sure this time to lay out my expectations for their behaviour outside before we would head out as a class. I also demonstrated where to locate the rise and run of the ramps using the images, and how to use a trundle wheel.
On the Year 8 sheet, I added 2 extra questions:
- Was there anything you found challenging about the task?
- What would you rate this task out of 5?
Surprisingly, many students responded with 3-5, although some disliked the task. Nonetheless, I think this resource is well worth having in my repertoire, particularly at the end of the day/week. It’s also deeply contextual and I would say makes authentic links to students’ physical world. Hope this will inspire you!
Teaching By Numbers 