Outdoor activities to discover medians and centroid of triangles

The article describes the steps that led students to the discovery of properties of triangles and to the construction of medians, perpendicular bisectors (axes), and notable points. The approach used is that of Inquiry and Embodied cognition in outdoor context. The activity involved 15 students from a middle school in Trieste, Italy. The results were tested by proposing to the same students five types of exercises on axes, medians, heights and bisectors and the notable points connected to them. Success rates were averaged and divided between those that were subjected to outdoor activities (axis and median) compared to those that were carried out in the classroom (heights and bisectors). A further comparison was made between the success rates in drawing the objects under investigation. Finally, we investigated through Mentimeter the students’ appreciation of the outdoor activity. 100% of students found the activity fun and helpful and the 85% of them considered group work to be useful.