There are lots of geometrical angles you can cover through a tessellation lesson (pun intended), but today we’re going to focus on tessellation art. A basic tessellation is created through repeating a polygon, but they can also be created using two repeating shapes. Not familiar with tessellations? You can learn more about them here, but a tessellation is a pattern of shapes that fit together with no gaps or overlaps. It’s a great way to explore patterns, tiling, and geometry! Students spin to define their design.Bring art and math together with this fun tessellation art project. The best part is that they can be reused! Because students spin their criteria, if they come back and spin again, they will get different criteria and can create a completely different model! Here’s a sample of a STEM Mat from the original set of STEM Mats: I’ve already done the hard work for you and designed these makerspace activities and engineering tasks for students. I recommend that students work in pairs for these challenges, but if you are using them with K-1 kids, you may want to have them work alone until they are ready for partner work. When you add in constraints and criteria to your makerspace activities and challenges, you are adding in STEM skills to the mix! That means elements like the 4 Cs: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. You might require that students only use 2 x 4 bricks, or only red bricks, or there might be size requirements. 30 minutes to plan and build is a great time constraint for your makerspace! Criteria can be a little harder to come up with. You already set constraints: time, money, and materials are examples of constraints. What are constraints and criteria? In the most simple terms, the constraints are the limits on the design, and the criteria are the requirements. Building with random blocks on their own, kids get to explore their creative side. They also get to build some really cool models! Here’s the thing though, they are also making someone ELSE’S creation. When building off instructions, kids learn skills like how to read a diagram, how to find the right pieces, and how to connect all the different types of blocks in the right way. How will you do this? By adding constraints and criteria! Adding Constraints and Criteria You can create your own based on topics you’re currently studying, or give STEM Mats a try (you can download a sample below). Once your kids are ready to tackle something more challenging, you can try out more well-defined building tasks. Find ideas for open-ended makerspace activities and challenges here. I recommend using simple materials that are either reusable (like LEGO building bricks, KEVA planks, or magnetic blocks like Magformers) or recyclable materials (paper from the recycle bin, cardboard boxes, index cards). Open-ended projects can be a great addition to your makerspace. For more tips on building creatively with legos, try this kid-friendly video: Top 15 Easy LEGO Building Tips, Tricks & Techniques. Open-ended projects build confidence with the materials so that students are ready to challenge themselves later on! Some of your students will have a lot of experience building with legos, but others may not have ever tried it. Providing either just the bricks or general ideas of what students can build, without any other guidance, can be a great way for students to get comfortable with the building materials, explore the different types of bricks and how they fit together, and get a hands-on feel for how some structures are more robust than others (by alternating where brick seams are, for instance). Two ways to use legos in you rmakespace: with more open-ended tasks, or with more defined tasks. While sets from Lego come with building instructions, you can use these bricks in a slightly different way for STEM learning. In fact, I have gotten quite a few sets of my own in the past few years. When it comes to building projects, is there really anything that comes close to building bricks like Legos? I don’t think you are EVER too old to play with these versatile blocks.
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