Time to Tessellate!

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Creating a “STEAMY” Math Classroom

By: Julie Crenshaw, Edgewood Middle School

6th grade Math Teacher

   I jokingly like to tell people that do not have the privilege of being an educator, that as a middle school math teacher my job performance is judged by how one hundred 11-12 year old students feel on a given testing day. Yes,  I do believe that standardized tests have their place and the scores give me important information regarding my student’s growth and my teaching effectiveness. However, to me the most significant indicator of my success each year is based on the answer to the following question: Do my students leave each year feeling more positive and successful about their math identity than they did when they first walked through my door in September?  If they do, I have done my job well and they are on their way to persisting through future mathematical challenges. They will not build a wall around themselves or become an adult that says “I just don’t do math…” Too often we are so focused on the skills we need to get through that we do not allow ourselves the time to create these experiences.

Our Why:

As a STEAM school, we are currently transitioning from a siloed STEAM class each week, to weaving in the elements of STEAM into every class, every day.  We want to create an environment that sparks student curiosity and connects their learning across disciplines.

To that end, we were given the following task to complete during quarter four:

Create and implement a task in your classroom that will create an authentic audience for your students.

This goal was chosen knowing that it is one of the most difficult elements of STEAM to implement.  It takes time and out-of-the-box ideas. It is clear, however, that when students have an opportunity to share their learning with others it becomes more meaningful and they become truly invested in the task.

A Project is Born:

My partner in crime and fellow 6th grade math teacher, Chris Sauter, and I decided to allow students to show the Edgewood community how beautiful math could be!  In May we have hundreds of family, friends and community members come through our building for the spring concert season and Academic Excellence celebrations. The student’s task was to create a tessellating figure out of a notecard that they would use to create a beautiful piece of art to be displayed in several prominent areas of the school.  As we discussed this project with our math coach Jessica Breur, she shared with us an idea that would take our tessellations to a whole new level. Instead of just creating a colored poster, students would also have the opportunity to duplicate their tessellating tile digitally, creating something truly amazing. The result was a laser cut wood puzzle of their tessellating pieces.  This addition exponentially increased student engagement, excitement and pride in their work.

Project Introduction:  

Students were introduced to Tessellations, where they can be found in the world and how to create their own figure that would seamlessly fit together.  Since these would be shared with our community we used this rubric to clarify what display level work would look like.

Production:  

Each student was given a notecard, scissors and tape.  In order to tessellate their card they needed to cut away from one side, translate it to the other side and tape it down.  They repeated this vertically as well. Precision, creativity and choice were key.

Once they were happy with the tile they created they were encouraged to try to “see” what it might be able to become and replicate the design in Google Draw.  Among some of the most creative were squirrels, squids and turtles!

Google Draw:  

Jessica created for us a Google Doc and this tutorial video to guide students through the process of making a functional tessellating tile in Google Draw.  This allowed students to complete this portion of the project independently and at their own pace.  

I will be honest, having never used Corel Draw or the laser cutter I was hesitant at first about facilitating so many moving pieces.  I was not sure that I could logistically support all of my students as they worked on this project in different ways and at different paces.   With the help from Jessica and the Integrated Science staff at our school, it was not only manageable but positive and productive time.

For about four days this is what was happening with my students:

  • Tiles were created with a notecard
  • PDF’s were created in my classroom of their digital tessellation and saved to their Google Drive.
  • 4-6 students were sent to the Integrated Science room at a time where they were guided to transfer their PDF into Corel Draw.  Project were cut throughout the day and sent back to the classroom.
  • While students were waiting for their turn, they were in the classroom tracing and coloring their posters.  

Some students chose to complete both projects, others spent the majority on one.  At all times students were engaged and productive.

Student Reflection:

So what did students have to say about this project?  A Google form was sent to students asking them to reflect on their work and whether or not they recommended I do this again next year.  Here were some of my favorite responses:

What was your favorite part of the project?

  • “The laser cutting because I got to see my design in real life!”
  • “Coming up with the idea of what your tessellation was going to be or was. You couldn’t really come up with what you wanted but in the end it most likely came out cool.”
  • “Playing with the puzzle!”
  • “Seeing how just one design can tessellate.”

How did you feel about what you tried to do and what you ended up with?

  • “I had no plan in mind when I first started making this, but my friends said it looked like a turtle.  So I stuck with it, and I’m pretty proud of what it ended up as.”
  • “I feel proud because what I did was really unique.”
  • “I was really nervous when I was trying, but when I was done I was proud.”
  • “I felt over the moon about my design because I worked hard on it.”

Would you recommend I do this with next year’s group? Why do you think it is a valuable project to do?

  • “I think you should because it is a challenge but not SUPER hard and I think people were proud of them. I know I was.”
  • “It’s amazing to finally see your laser-cut puzzle right in front of you, too. I recommend it.”
  • “As a person in choir I thought the posters added a nice pop of color and just seeing them around the school in general.”
  • “Yes ‘cause it was FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNN!”
  • “Yes because at this school we learn about STEAM, which is Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. So we in math we can learn about everything in class.”:

Authentic Audience, Mission Accomplished!

Work was hung in display cases and on walls to be shared the hundreds of community members that attended the spring concerts and Academic Excellence Celebrations.  We also created a slideshow of photos taken of each poster and wood puzzle, to run in the lobby. Students LOVED seeing their work displayed and the results exceeded even their own expectations.

Conclusion:

We set out to create and implement a “STEAMY” project that would engage students in geometric thinking and provide them with an authentic audience.  Along the way there were evidence of so many other STEAM elements and benefits to student learning. Students experienced a high level of choice as they wove together geometry, patterns, art and technology.  I believe that this is an experience that students will remember for years to come, and will be a building block in their identity as persistent problem solvers and mathematicians!