Snowflake Geometry (Day 1)

It is the first day back after a two week vacation and it is COLD.... 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 and model transformations when creating a snowflake.  I also had a critical writing goal, but we didn't even have time to finish our notes, so the writing will have to happen tomorrow.

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 beginning our note taking and focusing on 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.  Now we defined the trapezoid using its critical attributes.  I made a video of the notes that we began today entitled Snowflake Geometry Day 1.  We will finish our note taking tomorrow and complete our snowflake geometry.

HOMEWORK:  Countdown 2.4