Snapshot: 7B Playing Card Proportions Project

 In seventh grade, the students applied their knowledge of ratios, proportions, and scale to a project where they had to produce a scaled version of a regular playing card. The purpose of the project was to have the students apply their understanding of proportions to a real task and for students to develop an appreciation for the feature on tablets and phones where they can just pinch to enlarge and/or shrink a map or image. These are seemingly simple features that require a great deal of mathematics to make functional and accurate. 

I like this project because there are many ways for students to customize their experiences and provide differentiation. They could add difficulty in the value of the card, the suit, the scale factor, and whether or not they did the whole or just part of the card. Artistic ability is not required to succeed on this assignment, but it is an opportunity for those who have an interest in artistic expression to share their interest. It brings a little color and fun to the walls of the classroom!

Snapshot: 6C Coordinate Planes

In sixth grade, we have entered the world of integers!  We have doubled out numerical world by adding all of the negative integers to our known world of positive numbers. We discussed and explored the reason we need negative number and how we use them in our everyday lives. We reviewed how a four quadrant coordinate plane worked. The class enjoyed assignments where they had to plot points to reveal an image.  We took that one step further and the class was asked to create a coordinate plane assignment for a peer to complete. They will give each other feedback on the clarity and success of their assignment. Here are the images that the students created. 

7A: Tessellated Ceilings of Iranian Mosques

Celling of Hazrate-Masomeh’s mosque in Qom, Iran, all images courtesy of Mehrdad Rasoulifard (@m1rasoulifard) via Colossal

Tessellated Ceilings of Iranian Mosques

Related to our discussion of tessellations, this article came across my feed. The beauty and artistry of these mosques are stunning. Enjoy.

7 Math and Art Connection: M.C. Escher Tessellations

Today, we began exploring how to translate a figure in geometry. We have already looked at line symmetry, rotational symmetry, and reflections. In the course of our discussion, I casually mentioned M.C. Escher's tessellations. I was startled to discover that most of the class had no idea of who M.C.Escher was. I promised the class that I would post a few links so they could explore his work further. 

Resources
M.C. Escher (official site)
Artsy.net: Maurits Cornelius Escher
The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher
Tessellations.org - Escher Gallery