Tessellations - Teacher's Notes (GeoMAP)

Tessellations are found in art, architecture, and the natural world. Students work with increasingly difficult polygons (from triangles and squares to pentagons, hexagons, decagons, and beyond) as they explore the mathematics of tessellations. In Section 1, terms that reappear throughout the unit are defined, and examples of tessellations from the natural world and different areas of human endeavor are shown. In Sections 2-5 students investigate tessellations in which all the tiles are congruent to each other; while in Sections 6-8 students explore tessellations with regular polygons.

GeoMAP library available on CD-ROM product no. 7592

Table of Contents:

SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION

SECTION TWO: TILING THE PLANE

SECTION THREE: TRIANGLES AND QUADRILATERALS

SECTION FOUR: PENTAGONS AND HEXAGONS

SECTION FIVE: THE CONWAY CRITERION

SECTION SIX: FITTING REGULAR POLYGONS AROUND A POINT

SECTION SEVEN: REGULAR POLYGONS, AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH

SECTION EIGHT: TILING THE PLANE WITH REGULAR POLYGONS