I used to think of that quote a lot as I walked the Princeton campus, through quadrangles and past trees that — legend had it — he had crashed into on his bicycle while he was lost in his thoughts.
I passed his house on Mercer Street every week on my way to music lessons, and I wondered if his sister had not had the door painted it bright red so that he might notice it and not bump into it.
When I realized I would have to teach both constructions AND proof this year in Geometry, I first thought of them as a Big Obstacle. But seven weeks in and I have fallen in love with constructions. I created this Constructions Castle project to give students plenty of practice doing constructions while also giving them a chance to develop their understanding of how shapes and angles fit together.
I think their work speaks for itself.
Files are on here (zip file with all tools).
UPDATE (10/22/14):
The more students do this project, the more awesomeness is revealed:
This is an awesome project - thank you for sharing! The students enthusiasm and high standards for their own work is evident; you clearly inspired them. One question - did you show them any examples before they started or let their imaginations run wild? Kudos - Wendy M
ReplyDeleteThanks, Wendy! I did not show them any examples because (a) I didn't have any and (b) I wanted them to let their imaginations run wild. I did give them permission to use phones in class to search for example images of castles or other ideas. It was a great way to get them thinking beyond just following the recipes. Thanks for commenting!
ReplyDelete- Elizabeth (@cheesemonkeysf)
Love it!
ReplyDeleteAmazing as usual.
ReplyDeleteWe did this earlier this spring and I finally blogged about it! See http://msjwright2.blogspot.com/2015/05/geometry-construction-project.html . There was a fourth poster (it's a small class), but we can't figure out where it is. It was very cool too. I'll add it if we locate it!
ReplyDeleteI love this project. How much class time did you give them to complete it?
ReplyDeleteI would LOVE to do this with my classes. The links are broken. Any chance you could fix the links? I would appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteI love this project! I came across the same issue as Nicole, any chance I could download the files?
ReplyDeleteElizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this project. However, I tried to download the zip files and it said that they were infected with a virus? Is there another way I could get them?
Thanks!
- Collin
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