In 2014, Esther Honig asked photographers from 40 different countries to use Photoshop to make her beautiful in the eyes of their country and culture. Photoshop is a software program that allows photographers to manipulate and edit images to their liking. This is the original, unaltered photograph she sent out to various photographers in other countries around the world.
Students at Clemente examined her photoshopped portrait from the United States and Argentina. By using their knowledge of line segments, and angles, students used measurement to find similarities and differences between these elements in each photo. To their surprise, they recognized that the measurements from the United States were smaller in both centimeters and degrees. Based on these measurements, students were able to create written proofs using If ____, then ____. statements, proving that the United States used photoshop to make Esther Honig thinner than her portrait photoshopped in Argentina. Their use of If ____, then ____ statements then developed into written argumentative paragraphs (supporting the Common Core Standards of Geometry, as well as the Common Core Standards of Writing). And finally, as global learners in an IB school, they raised questions for discussion in class: What is beauty? How do cultures view beauty differently? Is it possible to measure beauty?
Students will be moving into Unit 2 with the knowledge that measurement can be used as a method to justify proofs. However, the next unit will challenge students to make justifications without the use of measurement, based only on geometric patterns that they are charting, analyzing, and synthesizing through their measurements of line segments and angles. These patterns represent theorems of parallel lines and transversals, and they can be used in proof writing that does not require measurement. With this foundational understanding of theorems and proof writing, students will be able to formulate geometric claims, and defend them with logical evidence based on their discoveries.