Week 8 Reflection
This week our focus was on geometry and 3-D shapes. The class started off with one of my classmates presenting an activity involving marshmallows and toothpicks. She began by having us name common examples of the shapes she was trying to teach us about (cone, cylinder etc.). Once we were familiar with the structure of these shapes, we were tasked with using the toothpicks and marshmallows to create a shape of our choice. Being able to physically see a representation of the shapes we had just learned about would work very effectively for students being able to visually represent images that had previously only been seen in 2-D contexts.
After building the shapes, my classmate took the opportunity to teach us about faces, edges, and vertices. With our shapes built, it became very easy to use each toothpick and marshmallow to represent and edge and vertex respectively. As mentioned before it would allow students to easily translate 2-D drawings and pictures into real 3-D shapes, and is excellent for providing visual representations of concepts like edges and vertices that may be foreign to students.
If given the chance to teach geometry I will definitely consider using this approach to introduce my students to the different parts of shapes, as for a new concept, it can be hard for students to turn the 2-D pictures in their books into 3-D models in real life or their head. This activity can simplify this process and give students a familiar object (marshmallows and toothpicks) that they can use in future assessments to associate with edges and vertices, increasing their recall ability if in a test situation.
I personally remember doing a very similar activity to this is my elementary years using gumdrops instead of marshmallows. It was at a time where my class was just being introduced to 3-D shapes and as evidenced by the amount of time my teacher was spending on these topics, it was clear the class was struggling. My teacher then decided to use this activity for similar reasons to my classmate, and it appeared to be very effective, our class moved forward with the rest of the unit very quickly after this. I personally found myself associating gumdrops and toothpicks with edges and vertices in my head, allowing me to quickly remember the definitions of them and subsequently find and count them on these shapes.
After these presentations we took a look at the Van Heile Theory of Geometric Thought. I found this very helpful as it outlined the stages of how students could interpret geometric shapes based on their prior experience and knowledge. It also outlined what types of activities I could do to get them to move from each stage to the next. I would consider using this at the beginning of the unit as a reference point to determine what stages my students are already at. This will help me plan more effective lessons by building lessons specifically based on the stage of thought my students already have. This would include activities intended to move students from one specific stage to the next, regardless of what the "desired" stage is, as I can't expect them to jump from a stage 1 to stage 4 without gradually practicing higher level thought and processing.
After building the shapes, my classmate took the opportunity to teach us about faces, edges, and vertices. With our shapes built, it became very easy to use each toothpick and marshmallow to represent and edge and vertex respectively. As mentioned before it would allow students to easily translate 2-D drawings and pictures into real 3-D shapes, and is excellent for providing visual representations of concepts like edges and vertices that may be foreign to students.
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| Neal, Mandy. (2017). Toothpick Structures [Online Photo]. Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/276056652136625787/?autologin=true |
If given the chance to teach geometry I will definitely consider using this approach to introduce my students to the different parts of shapes, as for a new concept, it can be hard for students to turn the 2-D pictures in their books into 3-D models in real life or their head. This activity can simplify this process and give students a familiar object (marshmallows and toothpicks) that they can use in future assessments to associate with edges and vertices, increasing their recall ability if in a test situation.
I personally remember doing a very similar activity to this is my elementary years using gumdrops instead of marshmallows. It was at a time where my class was just being introduced to 3-D shapes and as evidenced by the amount of time my teacher was spending on these topics, it was clear the class was struggling. My teacher then decided to use this activity for similar reasons to my classmate, and it appeared to be very effective, our class moved forward with the rest of the unit very quickly after this. I personally found myself associating gumdrops and toothpicks with edges and vertices in my head, allowing me to quickly remember the definitions of them and subsequently find and count them on these shapes.
After these presentations we took a look at the Van Heile Theory of Geometric Thought. I found this very helpful as it outlined the stages of how students could interpret geometric shapes based on their prior experience and knowledge. It also outlined what types of activities I could do to get them to move from each stage to the next. I would consider using this at the beginning of the unit as a reference point to determine what stages my students are already at. This will help me plan more effective lessons by building lessons specifically based on the stage of thought my students already have. This would include activities intended to move students from one specific stage to the next, regardless of what the "desired" stage is, as I can't expect them to jump from a stage 1 to stage 4 without gradually practicing higher level thought and processing.
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