This Are The Days Of Our Test

Objectives:
Apply the concepts of right triangle trig, the Law of Sines, and the Law of Cosines to objects in and around the school.
Create "real world" problems for classmates to solve.

Description:
Many of the application, or word, problems in math books describe ficticious places or places that the students have never been to. I remember a Geometry book that included a problem about the Pentagon. I asked my students how many of them had been to Washington, D.C., and no one raised their hand. Wouldn't it be great if our students could create their own problems used to answer questions they have about the world around them. I cannot think of a better way to answer the question of "When are we ever going to need to use this stuff anyway?" I believe that our class could create an awesome discussion on the topic.

Each group of 2 to 3 students would create a 5 minute video in which they pose two problems to our class on how to use trigonometry to indirectly measure objects in and around our school. The students would provide just enough measurements for their classmates to solve them.