Doing, experimenting … Learning Geometry

These days, in 1st and 3rd year of Secondary, we have enjoyed working on geometry “in a big way” from its elements, shapes, properties, structures that can be built with edges, faces, angles, vertices … The students have built figures, proven properties, investigated different patterns …

We have “done mathematics” working as a team, coordinating with each other to analyze, make decisions, experiment, build … And in a course like this, it has been exciting for everyone to go out to the patio to work on the subject with the different pieces and measures, and discovering patterns, possibilities … Sometimes what was expected did not come out, and they kept investigating, experimenting, starting over … They have built plane figures, polyhedra, geodesic domes … And some way in which they have not been able to resist the temptation and emotion, and some “made their physical immersion in geometry.”

Some day we have accompanied the sessions with analysis on paper and doing calculations, and other days we have simply built, learned and manipulated, to understand concepts and properties, apply geometric vocabulary and enjoy and learn “doing and building geometry”.

We have a lot to learn and build. We will continue to try to arrive at the formulas for areas and volumes through discovery, experimentation, testing. We will work with composite figures made of different materials, trying to understand and experiment beyond simple memorization and relating it to objects and situations in everyday life. In this way, what has been learned will have more meaning for the students and will help them to understand and remember it in the longer term.

Ana Isabel Siguero Chinchilla
Head of Science and Mathematics Department