Welcome Back: Snowflake Geometry

It is the first day back after a two week vacation and it snowed (well, what Texans call snow) while we were out.... so what better way to pique interest in math than by focusing on snowflakes?!

Snowflakes are actually very mathematical!  

Our goal today was that the students would be able to generate geometric definitions using critical attributes of a 2-dimensional figure. 

We began by reading the book:

This is the true story of Wilson Bentley who had a passion for studying snowflakes.  He even invented a way to photograph them in order to share the beauty of snowflakes with the world!

After reading the story, I showed a short video about Snowflake Bentley that showcases the photographs he began taking in the early 20th century.  The images are pretty amazing!

Finally, we began to focus on the geometry of snowflakes by working with the fact that most snowflakes are hexagonal.  We defined a hexagon by using its critical attributes (sides, vertices, angles, lines of symmetry, parallel, etc.), then we folded the hexagon on a line of symmetry and created a trapezoid.  Next, we defined the trapezoid using its critical attributes, then folded the trapezoid to make a rhombus, and finally created an equilateral triangle, each time defining the 2-d shape using its critical attributes.  I made a video of the notes that we began today entitled Snowflake Geometry.