Visualizing Intersecting Planes

Students have such a hard time visualizing intersecting planes.  It helps so much if they have something concrete to hold.

Are you teaching high school geometry?  This hands on activity helps students visualize intersecting planes.  It is perfect after teaching about points, lines, and planes.

I have a giant piece of foam board that I cut in half, and then cut slits in.  A saw works nicely for this :)  

Use foam board to demonstrate intersecting planes in geometry

Check out how awesome this looks once the foam board is stuck together.

Use foam board to demonstrate intersecting planes in geometry

I use my giant foam board to introduce the lesson and talk through the main points.  Once I’m ready to have students start taking notes and dive into specifics, I pass out two notecards to each student.  I have them tear notches into the notecards to show intersecting planes.


Using notecards to model intersecting lines and planes in geometry

Then, I have students stick their pencil through the notecard to show a line intersecting the plane.

Using notecards to model intersecting lines and planes in geometry

After that, I have students put the two planes together and use their pencil as a line.

Using notecards to model intersecting lines and planes in geometry


This works so well to have students visualize things.  Their homework typically involves true and false questions for this lesson, so I have them get out their notecards if they get stuck!