Helping students make connections with geometry and their everyday lives.

1. By: Trisha Miller
Walden University
MATH 6682

2. OVERVIEW:
 Geometric Shapes are All Around Us:
 In Our Classroom
 In Our Community
 The Things We Eat
 Tessellations are All Around Us:
 In Nature
 In Our Classroom
 In Art
 Communication & Mathematics
 Hidden Positions Activity
 STEM Superstars
 Robotics Engineer
 Video Game Designer
 Veterinarian

3. In Our Classroom:
 Clocks and globes are all
circles.
 Desktops, doors, and bulletin
boards are all rectangles.

4. In Our Community:
 The American Flag, Texas
Flag, and speed limit signs
are all rectangles.
 The Yield sign is an
equilateral triangle.
 The Stop sign is an
octagon.
 The Railroad crossing sign
is a circle with one line of
symmetry.

5. The Things We Eat:
 A whole pizza is a
circle, but one slice of
pizza is a triangle.
 Skittles and oranges
are spheres.
 An ice cream cone is
a cone.
 A burrito is a cylinder.

6. Tessellations in Nature:
 A honeycomb is a
repeated hexagon.
 A fence is a repeated
diamond.
 A pineapple is a
repeated pentagon.

7. Tessellations in Nature:
 Snake’s skin is a repeated
hexagon.
 A turtle shell is a repeated
pentagon.
 A spider web is a
tessellation.
 A sunflower’s petals
tessellate as well as the
seeds in the center.

8. Classroom Tessellations:
 A soccer ball is a
repeated hexagon.
 A checkerboard is a
repeated square.
 A quilt can have different
kinds of repeated
patterns.

9. Tessellations in Art: A few examples of his work
 M.C. Escher was a
famous Dutch artist
who developed
tessellations out of
animals.
 These type of
tessellations are now
called “Escher
Tessellations.”

10.  Tessellations I Created:

11.  “Hidden Positions”* A B C D E F
This activity helps to see the 1
value of using a coordinate
grid to specify location
2
instead of pointing. 3
 Each pair of students has
4
their own game board with
a divider in the middle. 5
6
* Van de Walle, J. A., Karp, K. S., & Bay-Williams, J. M. (2010). Elementary and middle
school mathematics: Teaching developmentally (7th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

12.  Player 1 places 4
different pattern
blocks onto their
game board.
 Player 1 gives
Player 2 directions
on where to place
their pattern
blocks.

13.  Player 1:
“Put your square at
A 3.”
 Player 2:
“Ok, I have put my
square at A 3.
What’s next?”

14.  After Player 1 has given instructions for all 4
pattern blocks, the students remove the
barrier and check to see if their blocks are
in the same position.
 Next, they switch roles so Player 2 can give
the directions to Player 1.
 For those students that need a challenge,
they can try guessing where the other
player’s shapes are. They can use counters
to remember which spaces they have
called. Whoever finds all of the other
player’s shapes wins.

15.  Do you like figuring out how things move?
 Do you like mathematics, science, and
computers?
 Do you like taking things apart and
putting them back together?
If so, then you
should become
a Robotics
Engineer!

16.  Robotic Engineers use mathematics to calculate
the motor power or torque required for lifting an
object.
 Variables include:
 amount of weight being lifted
 ratio of gears between the motor and lifting assembly
 length of a robotic arm (if used)
 speed at which the object needs to be lifted.
 These variables are also used to calculate the strength of
the material used for the parts of the robot. Any extra
weight added to the robot for strength decreases the
amount of load the robot can lift.
 In many cases, extremely precise math is used to
minimize the material used while maximizing the
available lifting power.

17.  Are you a great story teller?
 Do you like to draw?
 Do you like to write and talk about your
ideas to others?
 Do you love video games?
If so, then you
should become a
Video Game
Designer!

18.  Video Game Designers use mathematics
to code and script a video game.
 They use calculus to help determine how
fast an element of the game will change
over time.
 Increase the speed of the game.
 Each level increases in difficulty.
 More obstacles as levels increase.
 They use algebra to creating equations with
variables. These variables, when inserted
into an equation in a program, tell a game
what to do next.
 They use geometry when creating objects.
They must figure out how to combine
shapes and angles to create realistic
scenes and how to get objects to move
realistically.

19.  Do you love animals?
 Do you like biology and chemistry?
 Do you have pets and take good care
of them?
If so, then you
should become
a veterinarian!

20.  Veterinarians are animal doctors and use
mathematics everyday.
 They use mathematics to figure out
dosages. Medication dosages are
determined by an animal's weight.
 Small animals get small dosages.
 Large animals get large dosages.
 They also use mathematics when they need
to use conversions. They must be able to
convert between measurements when
necessary.