If Then Statements Geometry Poster Project

Looking for a fun way to have your geometry students practice writing conditional statements? Check out this If Then Statements Geometry Poster Project.

I learned about this geometry project while attending a session titled “Taking the Practice Out of the Worksheet” by Judy Schwarz of Moore Public Schools at the Oklahoma Council of Teachers of Mathematics Summer Conference.

Judy shared with us that she has students create these If…Then posters at the beginning of the school year in her geometry classes.

She said she often has students do this before they’ve ever even talked about conditional statements.  

If I remember correctly, she usually has students complete this as homework.  But, if you have access to a stack of magazines, you could even have students do it in class during the first week.

Here are some examples of if…then posters she brought to show us:

And, here are my interpretations:

If you eat spicy food, you need to brush your teeth.

If you own a lot of dogs, you have to buy a lot of dog food.

If you get caught drinking and driving, you will end up in jail.

The facilitator said she hangs these up around the classroom for instant decorations.  

Then, when they begin the unit on conditional statements, she has students work problems from the posters made by their students instead of from the problems in the textbook.  Students will have to pick a poster from the room and write the converse, contrapositive, etc.  

By starting with real-life examples, students are more engaged.  Eventually, they do move on to the problems in the textbook.

I love this idea, and it kinda makes me sad I’m not teaching geometry…