LESSON PLAN

GRADE/SUBJECT:    7th Grade/Mathematics

UNIT:    Tessellations

LESSON TITLE:    What is a Tessellation?

Objectives:    At the end of this lesson, the student will

  1. be able to define in their own words "tessellation".

  2. be able to site one example of a tessellation.

 

LESSON CONTENT

I.    Introduction:

This lesson will define "tessellation", and "regular" tessellation.

Lead in Question:    Yesterday we ended our experimenting with shapes with the task of finding one example of a plane covered with regular polygons with no gaps.  What did you find?

II.    Materials:

Pictures of the works of M.C. Escher, quilts, floor tile patterns, web sites: http://forum.swarthmore.edu/sum95/suzanne/apbsample.html, and http://forum.swarthmore.edu/sum95/suzanne/historytess.html.  Also, p. 13 from Kaleidoscopes, Hubcaps, Mirrors, pattern blocks.

III.    Lesson Plan:

  1. Get student input from Lead in Question.

  2. Show pictures of M.C. Escher, quilts, and web site tessellations on overhead or television screen.  Discuss student observations from pictures and yesterday's class with pattern blocks.  Look specifically for comparisons between the tessellations they created and the art forms.

  3. Define Tessellation:    An arrangement of closed shapes that completely covers a plane without overlapping and without leaving gaps.

  4. "What shapes form tessellations using only one type of polygon?  Have students work in same groups as previous day, with pattern blocks.

  5. Define Regular Tessellation:    Tessellation made up of congruent regular polygons (remember: Regular means that the sides of the polygon are all the same length.  Congruent means that the polygons that you put together are all the same size and shape.)

  6. Interior angles must be an exact division of 360 degrees.  Only 60 degree triangles, squares, and hexagons form regular tessellations.

IV.    Lesson Assessment:    EALR's 2.1, 3.1, 5.1 are targets of this lesson.  I will assess learning by opening discussion of tessellations vs regular tessellations.  Students will then complete the following written task:

1.    Using the pattern blocks as guides, draw two different types of regular tessellations which would cover an entire plane.  Collect at end of period.  (Regular tessellations with triangles only, squares only, or hexagons only).

V.    Closure:    Lesson is ended with assignment turned in at end of period.  Assignment easily leads into next lesson, "Four Types of Symmetry in the Plane".