During this project, we started off with a hypothetical problem: How many additional stories could be built onto the middle school considering that the shadow cast on the garden negatively affects plant growth during all times of the day? In the beginning of the project, we took actual measurements of the shadow cast by the middle school, found out the height, measured the distance from the garden box to the middle school, and measured other variables we might find useful for problem solving. Throughout the project, we learned about similar triangles and what makes a triangle proportional, or 'similar' to another. This helped us to use smaller scale triangles to find a desired outcome when working with larger scale triangles.
Right triangle shadow comparisons: