The 'Why': Why did we start drawing accurate shapes?
This lesson starts by asking students to attempt to draw a perfect shape on a plain piece of paper without the assistance of any instruments. Many students fail to see the purpose of constructions because they say they can simply 'see' how to do it without them. Taking this away and back to a time before instruments were invented is a good way of getting students to understand how tricky it was.
What follows is a slide about the history of mathematics, in this case; Euclid of Alexandria and his influence on geometry. Students are asked to make a quick factsheet that takes up a small amount of room in their books and write down some of the facts featured on the short video.
Slide 5 features an introduction to geometric instruments and serves as a good opportunity to double check that all students have them. While you are handing out equipment, have the literacy anagrams on the board and ask students to figure out what all the words are. it's worth talking about what some of these mean.
There are then 3 slides on how to set a compass including advice on setting, measuring and drawing with a compass. This includes visuals for students to copy. then there are 4 shapes to attempt; an equilateral triangle, a hexagon, a rhombus and a flower. Each shape is laid out in the following stages;
1.Watch how it is done on a video
2.Your teacher will repeat it on the screen
3. Write a step by step guide as you go along
4.Have a go yourself
On the slides for each shape, you can click the box with the instructions. The first box (green) will take you to a video on YouTube demonstrating how to do the construction. The second box (orange) will take you to an online construction tool (MathsPad). The extension task links the equilateral triangle, a hexagon, a rhombus together through problem solving.
Finally, there is a video detailing how to accurately fold a piece of paper to create a perfect equilateral triangle. This is a great example of another way to create a template for an equilateral triangle and links back to the starter of this lesson.
Activities included:
Drawing shapes without tools
History of Mathematics
Geometric Tools
Literacy Anagrams
How to use a compass
Drawing Shapes