RS Geometry doesn't do proofs. It's quite different than the standard high school level geometry course. It uses geometry concepts and drawing to appeal to a typical middle schooler's interests and development. Proofs are typically much more challenging... They were one of my favourite parts of high school math, but I don't have a lot of company there lol...

If your friend is looking for supplementary Geometry help, they might be interested in Life of Fred. Heck, even the RS course might be very helpful to her, though much of it would be very easy... But no, it doesn't do proofs.

Oh, and proofs aren't the formulae. Proofs are a formalized way of showing geometric facts to be true, like "prove that angle ABC and angle DEF are equivalent in these figures", when it's not necessarily immediately obvious that they would be. Then you use the accepted 'rules', like complementary angles or parallel angles (ie, angles that are parallel to each other on a common baseline will be the same angle)... it's very, very formalized and sometimes you have to be quite the detective to figure it out!

And sometimes it's obvious to the eye that it's true, but the challenge is to PROVE it's true using only the accepted rules. :)

Anyway, RS does, I think, give a solid foundation of getting a hands-on and intuitive understanding of these rules by discovering many of them themselves. But it doesn't go the further step of using them for proofs, that's for high school. ;)

Thanks, Heather...

Am I correct then in thinking of SAS, ASA, SSS, AAA as "proofs" of equal triangles, then?

I loved that part of grade 11 math...which is interesting, because I detested math in school and did badly until we hit geometry and then fell in love.

Okay, I'll tell her. She was curious about Life of Fred, but I only have the first 2 books on loan to me right now to look at, so couldn't comment about geometry. What a weird program LoF is - I can't make up my mind whether I like it or not, so I'm going to do a test run and see whether my daughter buys into the oddness or is repelled.

Kristina,

Heather is right with her answer about RightStart. It appears that her answer was just what you were looking for.

Let me know if there is anything else we can help with.

Make it a great day,


Cassie
Activities for Learning-RightStart™ Mathematics
Cassie@ALabacus.com
www.ALabacus.com

Our Mission: To help children understand, apply, and enjoy mathematics.