Will it Tessellate?

Near the end of our Shapes and Designs unit, students completed a project that focused on creating tessellations with various polygons or combinations of polygons.  Their project had 2 parts: First, a proposal, in which they had to identify regular polygons that will or will not tessellate, and combinations of polygons that will or will not tessellate.  For each shape or combination of shapes, students needed to clearly explain why the combination of angles/sides resulted in a design that could or couldn't tessellate. For the second part of the project, students took on the role of designers for a flooring company, and needed to create a catalog of tessellated designs for their boss.  To see a copy of the project assignment, click here.

This student's catalog had a very specific theme. This is her cover.....

....and her various floor designs

All of the designs from the designers of Floored on display 

Here are explanations from two students' proposals explaining why certain shapes or combinations of shapes tessellated and others didn't

WILL IT MAKE A TRIANGLE?

Another focus of the unit was to understand characteristics of triangles.  In this activity, students are attempting to create triangles with specific side lengths.  Through this activity, students arrived at the conclusion that in order for 3 side lengths to form a triangle, the sum of the lengths of the 2 shorter sides must be greater than the length of the 3rd side.

Check back in a few weeks for an update on our current unit!