Ferris Wheel Investigation - Discovering Sine and Cosine Graphs

This is generally aTWO-DAY investigation that the students do in small groups.The students use their knowledge of 30-60-90 triangles to come up with the values for sine and cosine within the context of a Ferris wheel. Extentions include discussion of co-terminal angles, unit circle, amplitude, period, and phase shift. Prerequisite knowledge: Special Right Triangles and Radian measure. I do this BEFORE discussing the unit circle and end up referring to this investigation throughout our discussion of Trigonometry. This is written for PreCalculus, but it can be modified to address the needs of students in a Trigonometry course or a Common Core III course.