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Exploring Outdoors - Photo Handout

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6 views

Exploring Outdoors - Photo Handout

Uploaded by

T
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Exploring Outdoors:

Discovering Math in Nature


Instructions: Use the following photos to prompt students to think about math
in nature. Here is a suggested approach but these prompts can be easily
modified for other mathematical concepts as well.

Photos 2 & 3: shapes Photos 8 & 9: tessellations


Photos 4 & 5: patterns Photos 10 & 11: symmetry,
shapes and patterns
Photos 6 & 7: symmetry
Images can be projected as a
group of slides or printed.
What do you see?
What do you see?
What do you see?
What do you see?
What do you see?
What do you see?
What do you see?
What do you see?
What do you see?
What do you see?
Exploring Outdoors:
Discovering Math in Nature
Teacher’s Guide
What do you see?
Students may ask you in return, are the lines in the
mountains rectangles? Or, could the trees be a cone?
What do you see?
Most students know that 2D shapes and 3D
figures can be composed from or decomposed
into other shapes and figures. They may not be
aware that the shapes and patterns found in
nature also include spirals, cracks, waves, or
stripes.
What do you see?
You have most likely provided opportunities for
students to identify patterns (also a Computational
Thinking skill) and make a prediction on what
comes next in a pattern (also from the
Inquiry-based Learning Approach). Students usually
understand that every pattern involves some kind
of changing attribute and repetition.
What do you see?
Would your students be able to create a pattern
rule for these photos? Would they be able to
predict what is next to extend the pattern?
What do you see?
When you help students make meaning of their
previous knowledge of symmetry and connect it to
their new experience in looking for symmetry in
nature, they are actively engaged in the Connect
stage of the Inquiry process.
What do you see?
Would your students easily see symmetry in these
photos? Would they be able to differentiate between
reflective and rotational symmetry?
What do you see?
Once you explain what tessellations are, students
may begin to notice them all around the classroom
when looking at the floors or walls, or outdoors by
looking in the ground or in leaves.
What do you see?
These photos might be more challenging. Students can
probably see hexagons in the honeycombs or in the
turtle’s shell. They may also be able to name other
shapes, patterns or more examples of symmetry.
What do you see?
What do you see?

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