10 of the best trigonometry questions, worksheets and resources for KS3/4 maths
While working out angles of triangles might not seem like an obvious life skill to students, it's a key mathematical concept that you can help them master with these activities and lesson plans…
- by Teachwire
1 | Introducing trig to KS3
This trigonometry lesson from Ben Cooper introduces sin, cos and tan, with a little quiz and questions at the the end.
2 | Trig without tears
Using a unit circle can help develop a deeper understanding of working with right-angled triangles, which is the basis of this lesson plan from Colin Foster.
The coordinates of the end of the radius are (cos θ, sin θ), where θ is the anticlockwise angle from the positive x-axis.
This provides a way to introduce students to the sine and cosine ratios as functions of an angle, and avoids the need to memorise SOHCAHTOA and procedures that may be poorly understood.
3 | Understanding sine
In this article Russell Timmins breaks down sine into easily digestible pieces, showing you how To explain this basic trigonometric ratio for KS3/4 students.
4 | KS3 questions
This resource includes a levelled activity with progressively harder questions for KS3 students.
5 | Leaning ladders lesson
Ladders leaning against walls is a classic scenario for mathematics problems and is often used to address topics such as Pythagoras’ theorem and trigonometry.
In this lesson, the situation of two crossing ladders is used as an opportunity to work on ideas relating to similar triangles.
How high will the crossing point be above the ground and how far will it be from each wall? What happens for different lengths of ladders? What happens if the walls are further apart or closer together?
Students need to identify triangles that are similar and then construct equal ratios to work out their answers. They will notice interesting properties, such as the fact that the distance between the walls does not affect the height of the crossing point. There are also connections with an average called the harmonic mean.
6 | Trig worksheet
This PDF worksheet on the Mr Barton Maths site features 11 trigonometry questions for students to work through. Nothing flashy, but might be just what you’re after.
7 | Another trig worksheet
More questions to be found here. This worksheet from Corbett Maths has 16 questions to work through.
8 | Revision and worksheets
This Maths Made Easy page has a guide to teaching trigonometry, plus a selection of worksheets for various ages.
Check out the full selection here.
9 | GCSE 9-1 revision questions
This carefully selected compilation of exam questions has fully-worked solutions designed for students to go through at home, saving valuable time in class.
They can be printed as A5 booklets to be issued in class or given out as a homework.
10 | Advanced trig
This advanced trigonometry resource from Dr Frost Maths covers 3D Trigonometry, 3D Pythagoras, angles between a line and a plane, angles between two planes and sine/cosine rules.
