27 Hands-On Trigonometry Activities

Looking for hands-on trigonometry activities? Here’s a collection of 27 fun and engaging trig activities that I have created over the past decade while teaching trigonometry and pre-calculus to high school math students.

Hands-On Trigonometry Activities

What is a Radian? Hands-On Activity

I created this hand-on exploration for my trigonometry students to explore the question “What is a Radian?”

Angle Spinner for Sketching Angles in Standard Position

This angle spinner for sketching angles in standard position is one of my favorite pages in our trigonometry interactive notebooks.

Coterminal Angles Card Sort Activity

I created this coterminal angles card sort activity for my trigonometry students to complete and glue in their interactive notebooks. Students have to sort the angle cards into groups that are coterminal with one another.

Trig Mini Poster Project

This Trig Mini Poster Project gives students lots of practice with graphing trigonometric functions.

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.”

Unit Circle Paper Plate Activity

This post about the unit circle paper plate activity is more a reminder for me the next time I teach trig than anything else.

Radians and Degrees War

Help students practice converting between radians and degrees with a fun game of radians and degrees war.

Clinometer Activity and Foldable

I love this clinometer activity for giving my trigonometry students extra practice finding missing angles and sides of right triangles. Plus, it answers the question of “When will we ever use this?”

Exact Values of Trig Functions Leap Frog Game

This Leap Frog style game gives students much-needed practice evaluating trig functions using the unit circle.

Unit Circle Projects

After years of seeing other teachers share pictures of the unit circle projects their students created, I decided to finally take the plunge. I assigned my trig students the task of creating a visual representation (2d or 3d) of the unit circle in lieu of a semester test in trigonometry. Check out the results!

Trig Identities Challenge Activity

This Trig Identities Challenge Activity will engage students and give them tons of practice rewriting trig expressions using trig identities.

Trig Identities Matching Activity

Introduce the concept of trig identities with this hands-on trig identities matching activity.

Trig Ratios Puzzle

Check out this trig ratios puzzle which I discovered on Open Middle and transformed into a printable puzzle for my students to tackle.

Double Angle Identities Joke Worksheet

Use double angle identities to rewrite each expression and answer the joke of u0022Why was the mathematician late for work?u0022

Unit Circle Magnets

I created these unit circle magnets to use with my dry erase magnetic unit circle from EAI Education. I plan to use the magnets both as a way to have a large unit circle on the wall of my classroom and for various activities throughout the year.

Radian Arts and Crafts Activity

This radian arts and crafts activity is designed to help students conceptually understand what a radian is. As a bonus, it creates a beautiful, mathematical art display for your classroom.

Trigonometry Puzzle

A couple of years ago, I created this trigonometry puzzle to keep my students busy when we unexpectedly finished our lesson with more time to spare than I had planned. This trigonometry puzzle is really the Twisted Wires Puzzle by Cliff Pickover in disguise.

Deriving the Unit Circle Foldable

Several years ago, I created this deriving the unit circle foldable for my trigonometry students to work through and glue in their interactive notebooks.

One or Negative One Trig Identities Worksheet

I really like the simplicity of this One or Negative One? Trig Identities Task that I found in the 8th Edition of Demana and Waits’ Pre-Calculus Textbook (Section 5.1). That’s why I decided to turn it into a worksheet!

Odd One Out Coterminal Angles Activity

I created this odd one out activity to give my pre-calculus students extra practice identifying coterminal angles. In this activity, students were placed in groups of 4. Each group was given a set of four angle cards. They must work together to determine the u0022Odd One Out.u0022

The Great Quadrant Guessing Game

I created The Great Quadrant Guessing Game several years ago to give my Pre-Calculus students some extra practice determining which quadrant of the coordinate plane was represented by two trigonometric facts.

Trigonometry Calculator Skills Pop Quiz

Several years ago, I created this trigonometry calculator skills pop quiz to give to my Pre-Calculus students before we learn to use our calculators for evaluating trig functions. Students tend to think that these calculator-based problems are super easy and that they donu0026rsquo;t need to be taught how to type trig functions into their calculator.

Printable Radian Sectors

Several summers ago, I created a set of printable radian sectors to illustrate what different amounts of radians looked like when graphed in standard form.

Quadrants Unlocked Activity

I created this fun quadrants unlocked activity to give my pre-calculus students some much needed practice determining the signs of trig functions in various quadrants.

Unit Circle Bingo Game

I decided to create a Unit Circle Bingo Game to give my Pre-Calculus students some much-needed practice with evaluating trig functions using the unit circle. Technically, this is more of a game of connect 4 than bingo, but bingo just sounds more fun.

Parent Graphs of Trig Functions Clothespin Matching Activity

This parent graphs of trig functions clothespin matching activity has been in the making for multiple years. Students must match each statement with the appropriate parent functions.

Fill in the Blank Unit Circle Chart

I created this fill-in-the-blank unit circle chart for my pre-calculus classes to use as they practice constructing the unit circle from memory.