#3683. Polygon Mobiles

Mathematics, level: Middle
Posted Wed Feb 22 18:05:01 PST 2006 by joshua christopher (christjw@pickens.k12.sc.us).
LIberty Middle School, Liberty, USA
Materials Required: reference book, text book, etc. , scissors, glue, straw, coat hangers, paper (for mobiles)
Activity Time: 1-2 Class periods
Concepts Taught: Geometry - Polygons

Break students into groups, assign/or allow choice of a type of polygon and fill in sheet. Students can then begin research into their particular polygon. The teacher will try to cover the main polygon and some "not-so common" ones.

i.e. choices are:
triangle
quadrilateral
pentagon
hexagon
heptagon
octagon
nonagon
decagon
undecagon
dodecagon
Last year the students were to do poster and oral presentations. This year to allow more learning styles to be catered for I have left the presentation to be optional. All will have an oral component though.

Lesson should fall towards the end of our topic which looks at Shapes and Angles. It allows the students to integrate Art with their Maths and is very tactile. The students create mobiles on paper which stay nice and bright in our room for some time after the topic is over. The mobiles will use a coat hanger to hand each presentation from with information about each polygon. This lesson can easily be adapted for primary classes.Presentations are then scheduled for the next couple of lessons. This activity also leads into discussions and serves as a reference point for later times.