Hands on Geometry

Still following on with my inquiry:

Will providing more opportunities to 'create' learning in maths help to embed strategies and mathematical concepts for students?. 

We tackled geometry this week and I spent a lot of time thinking of how to deliver the learning so that it was hands-on and engaging for students - but still getting the outcome required for level 3 or 4 of the curriculum. I ended up with a task similar to one found on the NZ maths site. Here is one of my students slides she posted on her blog -

I was quite impressed with how students responded to the activity. Students were ALL on-task and they all managed to complete their task before the end of the week. In terms of embedding knowledge, I addressed this by going through key ideas and learning at the start of every lesson and at the end of every lesson. Now students are able to say what they have learnt without any prompts and use their slides to explaining what they are talking about.

One of the things I could definitely do better next time would be to be more specific with my instructions and work space to do this kind of activity so students are not hitting each others models over due to lack of space on their tables. Otherwise overall, a very successful outcome and I am really eager to see what I can cook up for my students for next week.