Evaluating Trig Functions Square Puzzle Activity

I used this evaluating trig functions square puzzle recently with my trigonometry students. We glued our completed puzzles in our interactive notebooks.

This puzzle was created and shared by NCTM Illuminations under the name “Trigonometry Square.”

While I liked the idea of this puzzle, my students struggled with the fact that there were too many different possibilities for placing the pieces together. Answers were used multiple times which meant when students evaluated a trig function and found that the answer was -1, they didn’t know which -1 piece to use in the puzzle.

This led to too much unnecessary confusion and frustration, in my opinion. To counteract this, I created my own Evaluating Trig Functions Tarsia Puzzle. It is triangular shaped instead of square, and each answer choice only shows up once.