Hello everyone! This blog has been created as part of the subject 'Didactic of geometry' for the Primary School Education degree at the University of Málaga (SPAIN). The main aim of this blog is to reflect and talk about some didactic ideas concerning this amazing area of the mathematic field. Along the course of the different post I will talk about different aspects that might be useful for future teachers or to raise curiosity or understanding among students of different backgrounds.
In the post of today we are going to explain what
geometric figures are, why they are important to study and the four most basic geometric figures. Are
you ready? We start our adventure through the universe of the geometry!
There are
many, many types of geometric figures and in our daily life we find lots of
examples. A case in point is the blackboard
(which is a rectangle), the seat of
a chair (a square), the hat when we
draw a dwarf (a triangle) or a coin (a circle). One of the most basic
ideas that we need to know is the line
segment:
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Can you relate
each figure with the name that corresponds?
Geometric
figures are elements studied by maths and this field we study its measures,
features and properties. To give an example, one of the properties of the
circle is that its position does not vary when we rotate the figure from its
centre. We can see it:
If now we
imagine that the circles spins, we could see that the figure does not change,
it keeps being a circle.
Mathematics
and students study the properties of the geometric figures to understand better
the world, create inventive things and do experiments in this way. Thanks to
that, we count with invents so wonderful as the tyre of your bicycle…
A circle is a
closed curved in which all its points are at the same distance from the centre
of it, as a tyre. Can you imagine any example of circular geometric figures?
The square is a geometric figure that has
four equal sides united between them. Each vertex creates an angle of 90º. Can
you image any other example of an object with this form?
The triangle
on its side is a three-side figure it has two dimensions and it is closed. It
creates, consequently, three angles. Examples of triangles are some roofs of
the houses, a yield traffic light, or also… a sandwich slide or Mexican chips
to dip in your guacamole!
Illustration 1. Triangle corn chips.
A rectangle is a two-dimensions
close figure which its all four sides create a 90º angle, but with two
different longitudes, one bigger and one shorter. Examples are your notebook, a
postcard, a magazine, a landscape picture…
Illustration 2. Objects with square shape.
One innovative
idea to work these introductory concepts to the younger ones can be through the
creation of a rap. Each group can be
in charge of one geometric figure: triangle, circle, rectangle and square. Then
we can do a type of jigsaw but a
singing one, so each group goes to every small group to sing the part of the
rap. By working in small groups, I believe that one of the key benefits of this
technique is that they concentrate better because they are in small groups and also
it is the students who give the information to the others. When the own
students are in charge of the knowledge, they are highly motivated and the rest of the students are more concentrated.
Illustration 3. Jigsaw.
References
Buser, P. Costa, A. (2012). Curso de
geometría básica. Madrid: Sanz y Torres.
Polanía
Sagra, C. y Sánchez Suleta, C. (2007). Un acercamiento al pensamiento
geométrico. Colombia: Universidad de
Medellín.
Figura
geométrica. (2019). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figura_geom%C3%A9trica
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