Tesselations in engineering
A collection of resources to provide ideas for setting tessellations in the context of engineering, together with materials to support the teaching of this topic.
'Tesselation' is an activity from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), introduces students to the idea of creating a rule that can be used to create tessellated patterns, thus understanding what is required to make interlocking units.
There are two supporting resources. 'Quad Tesselate' begins with students attempting to draw a quadrilateral that does not tessellate. The Geogebra file works by updating a tessellation live as a vertex is dragged. The 'Polygons' resource covers basic angle facts, angle properties of polygons, symmetry, and properties of quadrilaterals.
- ALL
- Teacher guidance
- Textbook
- Activity sheet
Teacher guidance
Create a tessellation pattern
This activity, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), introduces students to the idea of creating a rule that can be used to create tessellated patterns, thus understanding what is required to make interlocking units.
Textbook
Polygons
This resource covers basic angle facts, angle properties of polygons, a revision of the symmetry of simple objects, the symmetry of regular polygons and the properties of quadrilaterals.
The initial file forms part of the textbook. The activities sheet, extra exercises and mental tests compliment the work covered in the textbook. The overhead slides can be used on an interactive whiteboard.
The resource would be suitable to use prior to working on the 'Tesselation' activity.
Activity sheet
Quad Tessellate
The initial challenge is to attempt to draw a quadrilateral that does not tessellate. There is a Geogebra file included with the resources that will help demonstrate the impossibility of the task. The Geogebra file works by updating a tessellation live as a vertex is dragged, giving a very pleasing visual representation of the result. Having established in a visual sense that quadrilaterals tessellate, attention turns to providing a formal proof.
This resource would be useful as an introduction to the 'Tesselation' activity.
