Implementation of “Symmetrical Art” (SOI-IT-363)
Author: Mariapia Borghesan
School/Organization: “D. Alighieri” Lower Secondary School – Merlara (Italy)
I implemented the learning scenario “Symmetrical art” by Rafael Montero focusing on tessellations in Islamic art. I choose this scenario because combines my interest (Art and geometry) and those of my students (drawing). The original learning scenario focuses on Art Noveau, I decided to modify it and concentrate on Islamic art, because in my classroom there are several students with an Islamic background.
I implemented the Learning Scenario in a Math class composed by 21 pupils aged 13 years old. They have previous experience with geometrical drawings, they have never used Europeana website.
I presented the LS “Symmetrical art” to my students in the framework of a laboratorial work related to the Math topic “Isometries”. We searched in Europeana for materials related to symmetries, rotations, and translations. We found interesting material by M.C. Escher, this material helped me to introduce tessellations.
In class we watched a video to learn how to make it, so the students were able to work independently to create their own tessellation patterns. Then, we had a look of Islamic art collection on Europena and we found interesting geometrical patterns from Alhambra, together with the students we decide to try to reproduce these patterns and to create other drawings inspired by Islamic art. For this activity we decide to use also digital tools (Mathigon and weavesilk) to create our digital artwork.
tessellation made by students
The last phase was dedicated to reflecting and evaluating the activities.
Students were really involved in the activities. They learn that Geometry and Art are strictly connected, and symmetry and other geometrical patterns are important part of the beauty. Some of my students have an Islamic background and they really appreciated to work with Islamic art. My students also like to make drawings and some of them are very good in this activity. I recommended this learning scenario as Math lab activities. Students will explore Math concepts in the real world, especially in the Art.
I was impressed by the great number of resources and very inspiring learning Scenarios in teaching with Europeana blog. I think art and digital cultural heritage can be included in several topics and in multidisciplinary approaches. It was quite easy to navigate in Europena collections and find the materials needed for activities.To implent this learning scenario, I had also a look of two stories of implementation by Matteo Torre and Josè Maria Diaz Fuentes, that have been really inspiring, and I suggest to colleagues to always have a look also of the story of implementation to find other ideas.
Did you find this story of implementation interesting? Why don’t you read about the related learning scenario? Symmetrical art created by Rafael Montero
Did you find this story of implementation interesting? You might also like:
- Mondrian and Math lessons implemented by Natalija Budinski
- Symmetry in Mathematics implemented by Ivo Zikic
- The revival of patterns and symmetrical designs implemented by Brendan Buttigieg
Do you want to discover more stories of implementation? Click here.
CC0 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Architekturmuseum der Technischen Universität Berlin.