Activity "Rope Polygons"
For this week’s activity, I chose to modify Rosenfeld’s “Rope Polygons”. This fits in nicely with my two units on Geometry (Angles and Polygons; Perimeter, Area, and Volume). It is a kinesthetic way for students to model these shapes and to integrate core competency skills. I have also included questions for students to consider and explore. (Note: I teach at an International Baccalaureate (IB) school, so some of the terminologies stem from their curriculum).
I tried doing this activity on my own with some string. What I noticed was that it was much more difficult to create regular polygons as I had limitations to the angles and distances between my fingers. I feel if students were asked to do this, there would be a sense of struggle and perhaps more engagement to think creatively. This activity did remind me a bit of the game "Cat's Cradle", where depending on how you play, can result in various string figures.
Christina thanks for including these videos. It helped me to see that challenging parts for you. Very cool. I also had the cats cradle connection in my mind. I wonder if there are possibilities for this type of learning with those jump ropes that are a continuous loop. We used to have a bunch from the action schools kits I think.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.ca/Chinese-Jump-Rope-Kids-Elastic/dp/B07KGF7RL9 Aside from making the polygons I wonder if creative games are possible (or cooperative games)
Great idea, Mahima. We have those elastic ropes for Chinese jump rope as well. It would be fun for kids to make polygons with their legs. Maybe they could even make a skipping sequence for a particular polygon!
DeleteMahima, this is fantastic resource! There is a lot that could be explored with patterns and stepping sequences, one foot, two feet jumps, and now much space students require depending on the polygon or spacing between the side lengths.
DeleteI used to play Chinese jump rope when I was in elementary! Gosh! We called it Chinese garter then. I was actually thinking of using that when my students were trying to create fractals with the rope. The garter would allow the stretching of the fractal into the different iterations where the rigid rope could not allow.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Christina,
ReplyDeleteI'm curious if you tried either of these this tasks with your class? As you read on my post, I tried this with my grade 4 class. It definitely requires collaboration. I debated the idea of giving students a role, particularly a role I would call the "organizer" - someone who tells everyone where to move, stand, hold the rope. However, I decided to just let it happen and see how they worked it out. Plus then the organizer would really be doing all the thinking. I'm wondering if you would have your measurer actually measure or estimate based on the knots on the rope. I found the knots very helpful, once the students realized they could use them to make the sides equal.
I've done a similar activity with my class before, but we had a short week this week, so I couldn't try this one out in particular =(. The one I tried with my students, I would rotate the roles so that each member had the chance to have multiple roles. I think because some of my students have strong personalities, they would tend to 'take over' the direction of the activity, completely. I felt by having roles, it gave students the opportunity to share their perspective to the task, or prompted them to engage in different aspects of the task.
DeleteI love the idea of letting them just go as well. There are times when the class is given more open-ended instructions. I think having the variation in how an activity is structured can also dictate more flexibility and unpredictability of their findings!
Oops, accidentally deleted the "Hi Kim!"
DeleteIt was a task where they had strings, a circle ring and a ball. Balancing the ball, they had to maneuver through a course. Though it was not the same as this task, they had to navigate the "arms" and align their bodies so the plane was even, and adjust the 'evenness' of pressure placed by the string. Changing the roles just give the kids a chance to interpret the problem and voice their perspective and insights.
* I tried to upload a pic but it won't let me in the reply section :-(