Here is one. The tangrams project was super fun, for both me and the kids. In the process, we learned how to find angles using adjacent angles in a diagram, how to find angles inside an isosceles angle, how to use Pythagorean Theorem to find diagonal lengths, how to find lengths of sides that "stick out" in a picture, and how to combine / simplify square roots and whole numbers! Wow. So much math in 2 or so days of class time. :) :) And the kids loved the puzzly parts of the project, piecing the tangram pieces together to make the silhouettes. Some kids also took the initiative to create their own designs and to find additional perimeters, which was really fun for me to grade!
Here are the scanned images of a couple of example projects. They look lovely in person, but the math work is in pencil (and some of the colors are also light), so the scanner unfortunately doesn't pick it up all too well. If you zoom in, you can see the math that they wrote next to the diagrams.
Entire project from Kid #1:
Parts of project from Kid #2:
Would you be willing to post the file of this worksheet? I'd re-create it, but I'm not sure how to make the tangram square or the figures. I can email you if that would be easier.
ReplyDeleteTHANKS!
Here: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~mimiyang/misc/geometry_in_tangrams.doc
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the three tangrams silhouettes I asked the kids to build aren't all equal. The one on the left is hard to build, but its perimeter calculation is easy; the one on the right is easy to build, but the calculation is hairy; the one in the middle is medium-easy to build and its calculation is medium-hard. (This is the one I recommended for most kids.)
Cheers,
Mimi