Unit Circle Speed Relay Game - Trigonometry - Special Angles - with answer key

This is a game I use over several weeks in my trigonometry classes, to help students better recall the three trigonometric functions of all special angles on a unit circle in both degrees and radians.

First, you’ll need to print off one half-sheet per student. Ask the students to stand in a circle (or at least a close enough approximation of a circle so that everybody can see everybody else at any given time). The teacher should also be part of the circle so that you, too, can see all of them at any given time. Having students stand helps them to remain more alert and mentally engaged, and it also makes it difficult for them to look at notes, phones, etc.

Once students can complete the first column in 10 minutes or less, I set a timer at 10 minutes, and we keep track of how far we got each time. Inevitably, they hit new records every day or two. They will typically complete one more column each time you play the game, and they will eventually end up with times to do the entire sheet under 8 minutes after playing for a few weeks.

It is very exciting for students to see their progress over time! As of May 2017, my all-time class record is 3 minutes and 10 seconds for the entire chart! (They had a really good day -- their other times were about 4 1/2 minutes.)

The preview file is a pdf so you may see what you're getting; the product file is a word document, which you may edit for your students.

Keywords: trigonometry, unit circle, sine, cosine, tangent, special angles, degrees, radians, speed relay, relay race, Jonnard