Summary

Tessellations, hands-on math

This project is made to give students the opportunity to design there own tessellations and understant the math behind that. Explore the unique feature of "Calçada Portuguesa" a beautiful and useful way to use tessellations.

Print Settings

Printer:

Bq Witbox

Rafts:

No

Supports:

No

Resolution:

0,2mm

Infill:

20%

Notes:

Filament: PLA | Print Speed: 60mm/s | Bed adhesive: hair spray

How I Designed This

Design polygons in Openscad - Step 1

Let's use this formula:

{circle(20,$fn=8);%circle(20,$fn=90);}

Now you have a 2d shape (image1).

Image 1

Design polygons in Openscad - Step 2

It's time to add volume so add this line before the previous one:

linear_extrude(height = 3, center = true, convexity = 0)

And you obtain your first polygon (image2)

Image 2

Design polygons in Openscad - Step 3

You can make different polygons by change de value that apears above the green bar in the next photos

Triangle

Pentagon

Hexagon

Project: Tessellations, hands-on math

Project Name

Tessellations, hands-on math is made to give students the opportunity to design there own tessellations and understant the math behind that. Explore the unique feature of "Calçada Portuguesa" a beautiful and useful way to use tessellations.

Overview & Background

This project give me more knowledge about math. I was a medium math student and now with 3D printers at a reasonable price it's a great opportunity to everyone knows more about math and have hands on activities in schools.

Objectives

At the end of this project students wil be abble to:

Identify polygons
Identify Regular Tessellations
Identify Semi Regular Tessellations
Build there own tessellations

Audiences

This project is made for 5th grade

Subjects

Math

Skills Learned

Math of polygons
Tessellations
"Calçada Portuguesa", a brief history

Lesson/Activity

There is a powerpoint you can use as guideline for the activity.

STEP 1 - What is a polygon

The teacher should ask first to students if they know what is a polygon. From there the activity should start.

First slide

STEP 2 - Identify polygons

The teacher should give to each student the “Identify polygons” worksheet and let them do the work

Second slide

Students Identify polygons worksheet

STEP 3 - Tessellations

The teacher should now introduce the concept of tessellation. Explain the difference between regular and semi-reglar tessellations.

Third slide

STEP 4 - Identify regular tessellations

The teacher should give to each student the “Identify Regular Tessellations” worksheet and let them do the work

Fourth slide

Students Identify regular tessellations worksheet

STEP 5 - Identify semi regular tessellations

The teacher should give to each student the “Identify SemiRegular Tessellations” worksheet and let them do the work

Fifth slide

Students Identify semi regular tessellations worksheet

STEP 6 - Build your own tessellation

The teacher should give to each student the “Build your own Tessellation” worksheet and invite students to use the plastic pieces to make there own tessellations. After that the teacher our the students should use the camera to take a picture of the tessellation, print ir and glue on the worksheet

Sixth slide

Use the polygons to build lovely tessellations, take a picture and print it

Cut the picture

Glue it and take it home

STEP 7 to STEP 14 - Calçada Portuguesa - a brief history

From here to end the teacher should tell a little story about "Calçada portuguesa" and show the beautiful images in the powerpoint of this wonderful use of tessellation

Seventh slide to the end

Duration

45 minutes

Preparation

List of things to get before activity starts:

Plastic polygons printed or ordered by the teacher
A media projector and a computer
Pencil for students
A webcam or a camera
A printer
Glue
Scissores
Make groups of 4 or 5 students

References

For the teachers here is a excelent resource to know all the math behind tessellations:

http://ictedusrv.cumbria.ac.uk/maths/pgdl/unit9/Tessellation.pdf

Rubric & Assessment

In the end students should produce a lovely regular or semi-regular tessellation.

Handouts & Assets

There is powerpoint presentation for the teachers, you can download in thing files folder, called tessellations_presentation.pdf

There is some worksheets to students will they perfome the activity, also you can download in thing files folder, called tessellations_worksheets.pptx