At the Museum of Math there is an exhibit about tessellations.  Do you know what a tessellation is?

A tessellation is created when a plane is covered by repeating shapes that leave no gaps or overlays. Tile floors are tessellations as are honeycombs.  You can tessellate with very simple shapes (rectangles and triangles) as well as extremely complicated ones.  The artist M. C. Escher is known for using extremely complex shapes to create tessellations that are also optical illusions. What do you see in the pictures below.  Do you see white birds and white horses?  What happens when you look for black birds and black horses?  Do you see those?

Notice how the shapes cover the entire surface of the plane but do not leave any spaces.  At the Museum of Math, there are buckets of shapes that fit together to create tessellations.  Tessellations would make really interesting puzzles for children who enjoy complicated spatial activities.  Do you have any examples of tessellations in your classroom?

Most of the exhibits are very sophisticated and designed for a mature audience.  However, the entire place was thoughtfully planned with people of all ages in mind. Most, if not all, of the exhibits have a hands-on component that even very young children can enjoy. 

Here, you can see that there are oddly shaped solids that when rolled across the table follow or create a path. The goal of the activity is to determine which shape matches the path is creates.  Both my son and I thought it looked easy but once we began trying, we found that it was much harder than we thought.  Trying to get the shapes to roll on their path was very tricky.

The Activity

I think a version of this would be quite easy to create and could be a really interesting activity for young children. Using the lid of a large box, draw a thick straight line down the inside of the lid  then a curvy line down the middle.  On the far side, draw a more complicated path from one end to the other.  Using a simple ball, encourage children to move the ball down the 3 paths.  This can be done alone or as a cooperative activity between 2 children as they hold onto the box lid and move the balls along the lines.

Give it a try and let us know how it turns out.