This post documents a remarkable lesson in which the students use Keynote to explore geometry by creating tessellations. Keynote's ability to copy/paste, rotate, zoom in and out, colorize, and group objects makes it an ideal medium for experimenting with the repeating geometric patterns that make up tessellations, and the ability to create additional slides means that students can experiment with multiple forms within a single document.
In this video, you'll learn the essentials of Mr. Mitchell's lesson for the students. They were already familiar with Keynote, and other math lessons had covered topics in geometry and tessellation. You can tell from the students' comments that they were paying attention to correct geometric definitions and terminology, and you can also tell that they were intrigued by the beauty and complexity of their creations. As they became more comfortable with the concepts, the designs got more complex and challenging and the conversations got more interesting.
When the students were done, the Keynote files were emailed to Mr. Mitchell and displayed on the projector for the class to review. It's a powerful lesson design--provide the tools, step aside, offer help and extension as needed, and come together for review and reflection.
Ideas in this classroom spread like wildfires on the tundra.
No comments:
Post a Comment