Chapter 12: Activities and Lessons

Activity Name Activity Description
TransmoGrapher Students explore the world of translations, reflections, and rotations in the Cartesian coordinate system by transforming squares, triangles and parallelograms. Parameters: Shape, x or y translation, x or y reflection, angle of rotation.
Tessellate! Students deform a triangle, rectangle or hexagon to form a polygon that tiles the plane. Corners of the polygons may be dragged, and corresponding edges of the polygons may be dragged. Parameters: Colors, starting polygon.
Floor Tiles Students learn about tessellation on quadrilateral figures by dynamically changing the shape of the quadrilateral through dragging corners.
Tessellate! Students deform a triangle, rectangle or hexagon to form a polygon that tiles the plane. Corners of the polygons may be dragged, and corresponding edges of the polygons may be dragged. Parameters: Colors, starting polygon.
Surface Area & Volume Students manipulate dimensions of polyhedra, and watch how the surface area and volume change. Parameters: Type of polyhedron, length, width and height.
Slope Slider This activity allows the manipulation of a linear function of the form f(x)=mx+b and encourages the user to explore the relationship between slope and intercept in the cartesian coordinate system.

Lesson Name Lesson Description
Translations, Reflections, and Rotations Introduces students to the concepts of transformations.
Geometry in Tessellations Explores lines, planes, angles and polygons in tessellations
Symmetry in Tessellations Examines plane symmetry
Visual Patterns in Tessellations Explores the mathematical nature of art and tilings and looks at the role of math in nature and our culture
Introduction to Fractals: Infinity, Self-Similarity and Recursion Introduces the ideas and motivates the activities
Geometric Fractals Outlines the approach to building fractals by cutting out portions of plane figures