Implementation
Identifying Quadrilaterals
We can classify quadrilaterals by observing their properties — such as parallel sides or right angles. From these observations, we build a classification tree that organizes shapes into groups based on their features.
Classification trees are among the oldest machine learning methods, yet we still commonly use them as illustrative examples in teaching.
If you are running this lesson in an unplugged setting, it works best if students have already encountered similar activities, such as What are the gnomes doing or Animal tree. When working on a computer, however, you may prefer to skip the manual construction of the tree and focus on exploring the results instead.
Relevance to everyday life
Just like recommender systems, predictive models are everywhere. Meteorologists use them to forecast weather, banks to detect suspicious transactions, email inboxes to filter spam, mobile service providers to try and predict which customers will switch to competitors, drug developers study the effects of new compounds, and cars are getting better and better at recognizing obstacles on the road.
Connection with the curriculum
This activity falls within mathematics. It focuses on reviewing the identification of different types of quadrilaterals and their properties, as well as reinforcing basic mathematical terminology.