SUCCESS CRITERIA:

Identify a Mathematical pattern within a tessellation

Describe how a pattern can be used when creating a tessellation

Justify the use of tessellations in everyday life

Reflect how Tessellations can be used in other elements of STEAM such as engineering

Mini Lesson:

What exactly is a tessellation?

Tessellations are patterns resulting from arranging, or tiling, shapes without any gaps. They can be made by positioning the same shape with one of these three operations:

Translation: can be thought of as sliding the shape along a plane. This is the type of tessellation you can make easily with a sticky note.

Rotation: tessellations are accomplished by (you guessed it!) rotating the tessellated shape.

Reflection: tessellations are mirrored. You can also create complex tessellations by combining multiple operations.

Materials needed:

• square piece of paper (a small sticky note works well)

• scissors

• tape

• paper

• pencil

STEP 1:

• Cut out a square piece of paper similar to the size of an average sticky note

STEP 2:

• Draw a simple shape on two sides from corner to corner

STEP 5:

• Now that you have your template, place it somewhere on a piece of paper and trace it. Then Place the template so that it fits onto itself and trace again, repeating until the page is covered.

REFLECTION:

How can this be used in other aspects of STEAM such as engineering tasks for construction?

How is a pattern in a tessellation related to a number pattern?

Can you think of modern examples of tessellations such as modern buildings, do they use translation, rotation or reflection?