Students draw a right triangle on the geodot paper. They then draw squares that touch each side of the triangle. They determine the area of each of the squares. In this example, the student found on the top that the two smaller squares have areas of 16 square units. The larger square measures 32 square units. The students realizes that:

16 sq. un. + 16 sq. un. = 32 sq. un.

On the bottom, they realize that 25 sq. un. + 25 sq. un. = 50 sq. un.

This exploration proves the Pythagorean Theorem: