Today we discussed all things circles. We talked about the radius, diameter, circumference, and angles. Thanks to technology, we had a whole new way of learning about it!

A couple weeks ago, one of our blogging buddies, Mrs. Hembree wrote a post highlighting the changes to their library. As part of that post, she used a Microsoft program called Photosynth to create a panoramic image of their library. That sparked an idea!

Using an iPhone app called 360 Panorama, we were able to create our own panoramic images to help us learn all about circles.

In our first panoramas, we find the radius. You’ll be able to see yarn stretching from the center of our classroom to the front of the room. The radius is a line segment extending from the center of a circle out to the edge of the circle. To navigate through the picture, just click and hold down on the mouse, then move it from left to right or right to left!

If these have trouble loading on your computer, you can also access our panoramas by clicking here. You can load any of the panoramas by simply clicking on them.



Our next panoramas show us the diameter. The diameter of a circle is a line segment that stretches from one side of the circle to the other. The diameter has to pass through the middle point of the circle. In the image, you’ll be able to see yarn stretching across our image to represent our diameter.




The next group of panoramas show the circumference of our circle. The circumference is the distance around a circle. Look for a black piece of yarn stretching all the way around our classroom to mark our circumference.




Our fourth group of panoramas represent the many angles within a circle. We often hear the term of someone doing a 360 in basketball, skateboarding, or snowboarding. That refers to 360 degrees, or 360° which represents the distance all the way around a circle. That means that half way around a circle would be 180°. Start with 0° in the front of the room. Work your way around clockwise until you end up back at 360°. You’ll be able to see the many angles along the way! If you can’t see an angle well, you can zoom in by hitting the plus button on the left side of the panorama or by using the scroll bar on your mouse.




For our final panorama, we decided just to have a little bit of fun. Students were able to pose however they wanted as long as they were still along the circumference.



*What else do you think we could use a panorama for to help us learn?*

*What do you think the length of our radius and diameter might be?*