Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, some of the materials can work great with a college prep class. It will take some work on your part. You’ll need to do one of three things. (1) There are some materials that will work fine without modification. You’ll need to sift through the course to find them. (2) You can pick an assignment that you would like to use and then use only the parts that are right for your students. (3) You can modify an assignment to create a version that works with your students.

YES. Our pilot teachers were thrilled with how convenient the material was during the spring of 2020 when they had to teach from home. On the details page for each assignment, you can mark the assignment or its answer key as being available to your class for a specific amount of time. They can login to the student page for your class to get the work you’ve assigned. Also, we are preparing a guide to help you use higher-order-thinking-skill assignments online.

Given that you have the right secret ingredient, this program can work fantastically for home schooling. Everything you need to teach all the core skills is there, plus there are 190+ assignments that offer more challenging work requiring solving, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. The secret ingredient is a person (parent, friend, tutor, etc.) who can converse comfortably with the student about the higher-order-thinking-skill assignments. The discussion and hinting process is an important part of working with this part of the program.

Yes. We correlated Common Core Standards to all 360+ assignments. Also, you’ll be able to search for assignments by Common Core Standard numbers.

We wouldn’t leave you high and dry without what you need to teach basic skills. We understand their importance. Students practice core skills in Target Practice and Weight Room assignments that each correlate to a formative assessment called a Quick Check. There are also quizzes and tests on these core skills in each unit.

Either. We wrote the program so it could be your entire geometry program. Everything you need is there. Some of our pilot teachers did this. Other pilot teachers mixed Trapeze materials (that can’t be found in textbooks) with their textbook programs. We designed the course to be used as a complete program or as a resource.

We based the order on what made sense relative to our learning goals for students. Keep in mind that we were writing all materials specifically for advanced or honors students, so we were trying to perfect everything for their needs rather than match any existing program.

Yes. We made it easy to do so. You can enable assignments and answer keys for download, and then they will appear on the class’s student page for a time period that you specify. We have removed the step of downloading assignments and then attaching them to an e-mail or posting them using other software.

No. These materials are copyrighted and one license is meant for a single teacher. We ask that you honor this policy so that we can keep the costs low to enable as many schools as possible to be able to afford access. Your school should purchase one license for each teacher who would like to enjoy using the library of 360+ assignments. If you have extenuating circumstances you would like us to consider, write to us at support@trapezeeducation.com. We want to be flexible and help when it makes sense to do so.

No. We purposely wrote more assignments of all types than any teacher could possibly use in a school year. That way teachers have choices based on what works best with their students.

We found in the pilot program that teachers wanted the Transformations and Formal Logic units at different points during the year. We presented them as floating units so that you can place them where you want them or not use them at all. As we’ve mentioned, we wanted to make the curriculum as versatile as possible.

We want teachers to be as successful as possible because everyone benefits. That’s why we provided plenty of teaching tips in the highly annotated answer keys. We also consolidated a lot of our advice in “Becoming a Problem Solving Teacher.” Finally, if you have questions you can write to support@trapezeeducation.com.

Good. That means that you recognize that simply basing your assessment of high-level problem solving assignments on a percentage of correct answers may not be ideal. In fact, when we ask students to do difficult things, we owe it to them to assess in a way that makes them feel like they are venturing out with a safety net to catch them when they fall. We’ll offer what we’ve learned about alternative assessment, and you’ll be able to get other ideas in the forum discussion on assessment.

We’re glad you noticed. Triangle trigonometry is a powerful tool for analyzing and solving geometric problems. We introduce tangents and arctangents in the third unit because they grow out of similarity but also because students can then use them to analyze and solve more challenging problems throughout the rest of the year. We give them one tool at a time. Learning the tangent function alone allows students to master applying trigonometry without having to focus on which ratio is which. We have found that this makes learning the other two ratios in the fifth unit a piece of cake so that the focus can be on rich thinking tasks. We ask that you trust us that what we have described works fantastically.

We never stop getting new ideas. As we write new assignments, they will be added to the course. Also, even though we had an amazing team of people developing and checking answers, there will be mistakes that we will correct and upload. Finally, just as we learned from our pilot teachers, we’ll learn from you. This will lead to improvements in the assignments. The good news is that you will have access to the most recent material without ever having to pay a yearly subscription fee.