Entry #6: Learning geometry at home 🏠

 Learning geometry at home

As we have seen during this blog, geometry is everywhere: video games, in the city... and, of course, it is also at home! For that reason, I have thought about an activity that your students could carry out at home in order to learn geometry and to understand that we are surrounded by it. So, let's see the activity! 👍

This activity consists of asking students to look for geometric shapes in objects in their houses. It is useful for teachers to remember that objects are not perfect geometric figures, but have the shapes of ideal figures. Consequently, they are not perfect. So, taking that into account, now it is time to explain the activity 👇.

A geometric activity for students

1. First of all, we must know whether we are going to ask the students to look for plane shapes or 3D solids in order to search for certain elements. Let's imagine that we are going to look for plane figures.

2. Then, once we have decided that. We are going to decide how many figures, as a minimum, they should find at home. For example, my students will have to find three objects with a 2D geometric shape at home.

3. Finally, we are going to tell them that they must take a photo of each object, measure its sides, write and calculate its area and perimeter and write that down in their notebook or in a digitalised file. 

4. We must give them some examples. You can find one of them here! I found a clock at home that had a figure of an octagon, so that I measured its sides and its apothem in order to calculate the area and the perimeter.

As you may see, I have coloured the shape of the octagon and I have written on the own figure. In order to do that, I used GeoGebra, but it is not necessary since it can be complex for students! However, if you (as teachers 👨‍🏫👩‍🏫) do that, they will better understand the activity and the purpose of it, for sure! 👌

I consider that it can be very useful for students to understand that geometry is everywhere at home, and their curiosity could be fostered in order to motivate them to look for more objects. Manipulation when learning is key, and their houses are their closest context, so let's use it! Well, that's all! See you in future posts! 👏