Page 56 - Kids and Bees Resource Booklet_SP_Neat

Published by the Bee Girl Organization
Author: India Bolding and Sarah Red-Laird
Subject: Math & Science
Season: Year Round
Place of Learning: Classroom
Grade Level: 3

Objectives:
 Students will define tessellation and explain why it’s commonly found in nature.
 Students will develop an argument for hexagons being the ideal shape for nature to tessellate using proper-
ties such as perimeter to area ratio.

Main Standard:
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.D.8 Solve real world and mathematical problems involving perimeters of
polygons, including finding the perimeter given the side lengths, finding an unknown side length, and exhibiting
rectangles with the same perimeter and different areas or with the same area and different perimeters.

Supporting Standards:
Math
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.C.5 Recognize area as an attribute of plane figures and understand concepts
of area measurement.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.C.7 Relate area to the operations of multiplication and addition.

Science
3-5-ETS1-2 Engineering Design Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based
on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

Additional Vocabulary:
 Tessellation - shapes that can be arranged so that there are no gaps between them and that do not overlap.
 Ratio - a relationship between two numbers showing how many times one value is contained within the
other.

Materials:
 Tiles, pyramid blocks or paper cut outs of regular geometric shapes (at least 6 of each shape for each stu-
dent).
 Access to magazines, nonfiction books, or the internet to do personal investigations of geometry in nature.
 Rulers

Investigate!
1. Exploring tessellation Explorando la teselación
a. Using tiles, pyramid blocks, or paper cut outs, give students a variety of shapes and have them see
which ones can be tessellated -- which ones can be put together with no gaps and without overlap-
ping
Usando azulejos, bloques piramidales o recortes de papel, de a los estudiantes una variedad de for-
mas y haga que vean cua les pueden ser teseladas, cua les se pueden juntar sin espacios y sin super-
posiciones
b. Students will realize that the only shapes that can do this are triangles, squares, and hexagons
Los estudiantes se dara n cuenta de que las u nicas formas que pueden hacer esto son tria ngulos,
cuadrados y hexa gonos.

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