Implementation of ‘Symmetrical Art’ (SOI-ES-133)

I implemented some of the ideas used by Rafael Montero in his learning scenario ‘Symmetrical ART’ with my 12-year-old technology students. My aim was to guide students in the observation of rich geometric patterns within art. Personally, I think it is one of the most attractive activities to link the real world with mathematics. Students used the Europeana portal to search for artefacts.

Inspired by Art Nouveau

First of all, students searched for Art Nouveau examples on Europeana Collections. After seeing many beautiful images, they felt inspired to make their own tessellations. To instruct students on how to make tessellations, teacher showed the video tutorial which was provided in Rafael Montero’s learning scenario.

Making own tessellations

My students are in the first year of secondary education and are gradually acquiring their object construction skills. In this activity, they had the opportunity to make their own designs and test their knowledge. In some cases, they made mistakes, therefore, they had to restart the whole process. Students found out that this is a part of the learning process.

What else students learned?

My students really liked this hands-on activity and done it quite satisfactorily. Furthermore, they practised reading in English and improved their manipulative skills.

Would you like to read about the related learning scenario? You can download it below:

Symmetrical ART by Rafael Montero

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CC BY 4.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana Collections and provided by the Wellcome Collection.