Rotating String Shapes

The Exploratorium

In this group activity, learners make multi-sided polygons with string. Learners slide a long piece of string through their fingers to make different kinds of triangles (isosceles, right, equilateral, and scalene) and quadrilaterals, including concave and convex shapes. Learners also draw the shapes from different points of view to explore congruency. [Activity is publicly available through a web crawler capture on Archive.org.]

Preparation Time:: Under 5 minutes
Learning Time:: 30 to 45 minutes
Estimated Materials Cost:: 1 cent - $1 per group of students
Age Range:: Ages 8 - 11
Resource Type:: Activity
Language:: English

Materials List (per group of students)

String, about 2.5 meters (8 feet) long, tied at the ends to form a loop
Large, flat table
Masking tape
Four people
Close to Me/Far from Me page per learner (p. 4)
Pencils

Keywords

Subjects

Mathematics
- Geometry
  - Plane Geometry
- Representation
The Nature of Technology
- The Design Process
  - Problem Solving
The Nature of Science
- The Scientific Process
  - Conducting Investigations

Audience

To use this activity, learners need to:

see
be mobile
touch

Learning styles supported:

Involves teamwork and communication skills
Involves hands-on or lab activities

Other

Includes alignment to state and/or national standards:

See page 5 of PDF

This resource is part of:

Geometry Playground: Activities and Links

Access Rights:

Free access

By:

Exploratorium

Rights:

Funding Sources:

National Science Foundation
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation