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Simple, fun, high engagement...
Simple, fun, high engagement...
Using student collected data is a fun, easy, and highly engaging way for students to learn about visual spatial and geometric concepts. Take 5-10 minutes once a week and explore what your students see over the course of the school year!
Students take pictures (either at home and/or at school) that are collected into a data set that is used to investigate shapes and other visual spatial concepts. Not only are various 2D and 3D shapes identified and discussed, but students mentally see shapes within other shapes, transformations, visualize from different viewpoints, and describe spatial positions (see Figure 2.1).
Posing a simple question such as, "What shapes do you see?" allows for multiple entry points, discussion, and further investigations when something is unknown. This activity allows for authentic math talk and investigation where the teacher can insert the language/vocabulary students may not yet have acquired.
IMPORTANT!! DOCUMENT your new discoveries and learning in some way for future reference, revision, and revisiting throughout the year (white board, anchor charts).
Sample of conversation snippets and pictures students submitted in a Grade 1 class (Fall/Winter):
"If you went underneath the red thing on the ceiling and looked up it would look like a circle."
"The mailboxes are actually rectangular prisms, but they look like squares from the front. I also see lots of rectangles in the front of the mailboxes if you join some of them together." Student proceeds to come up and show where they see all the rectangles.
"The tire looks like a circle, but it's not 2D and it's not round like a sphere. What is that shape called?"
"I see a growing pattern of circles on the wooden 'step' but some of it is hidden under the playhouse."
"I see a donut shape and a plate that looks like a square...but the corners aren't pointy. What is that shape called? Is there a math word for a donut shape?"
(plate -squircle, donut -torus)
"There are squares and big triangles on the wall and rectangles in the blue on the top."
"There are 6 triangles but the edges are round instead of straight. If you spin it, each of the pieces will match up because they look the same."
"I see so many cylinders! In the hose, the plastic thing where the hose is wrapped on, in the light post out front. Even the blades of grass are kind of like little tiny cylinders."
Notice the visual spatial skills students are applying as they look at these sample pictures. Students are mentally visualizing seeing shapes from different perspectives or visualizing 'hidden' elements. They are inquiring and asking questions about shapes they do not recognize, identifying patterns, and seeing shapes within shapes.
Sample observations from Grade 1 October.
So many opportunities naturally arise to develop language and visual spatial skills, such as:
rotational symmetry (green spinning tray)
common 2D and 3D shapes and the close observation of what makes a shape that shape (example: triangles have 3 straight edges; what makes a shape 2D or 3D?)
less common shape names (torus, squircle)
visualization, rotation, looking from different vantage points
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