Outline
Tangram
The 2ndD, ISS Tommaso Salvini" Technological Pole of Rome, Italy, is partecipating on eTwinning project "Math, Art and Real Life with GeoGebra" with other partners' schools. The teachers working on T&LS in this class are Angela Colamaria and Norma Lisa Neiman. We wanted to start with something simple that could nurture teens’ interest to the topic and combine T&LS to their growing environment: technologies and games. That’s how we came out with the idea of TANGRAM. TANGRAM is a Chinese old game and consists in a dissection puzzle “of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap”[Wikipedia]. The aim of TANGRAM’s Lab in Mathematics is to foster interest in geometry using an old Chinese game with an interactive geometry environment (geogebra). Learning through games encourages and motivates students in an active and fun way. These activities develop their creativity, their concern for investigation and exploration, their reasoning and curiosity to geometrical knowledge. It gives a chance to a deeper understanding in mathematical content and concepts and more interaction between students if working in team. The topics emerging from the use of Tangram are Cartesian Coordinate system, deep connection between algebra and geometry, constructions of points, segments, mid points, lines, polygons, vectors, transformations (especially translations and rotations), congruences and similitudes in polygons and some geogebra scripting. After the construction of the TANGRAM, the students can focus on the artistic production, keeping in mind the game's rules.
