PFC102R/102/2011

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

Department of Teacher Education

PFC102R TEACHING MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL SCIENCE

TUTORIAL LETTER: PFC102R/102/2011

SEND THIS ASSIGNMENT IN AN ASSIGNMENT COVER MARKED AS ASSIGNMENT 02

Open Rubric

Dear Student Information on assignment 02

You must complete two sections, Section A and B for Spatial orientation (Geometry). The purpose for Section B is to grant the student an opportunity to discover how geometry should be taught at school. The objective for Section A is to upgrade the students own knowledge concerning Learning Area content. This assignment includes writing, calculating, drawing as well as the construction of paper-and-stick models. Take careful notice of the fact that the nets of the models need to be handed in with the rest of the assignment. A net is a twodimensional shape which can be folded to make a three-dimensional object (The Cambridge Mathematics Dictionary for schools 2009:84). This assignment should be seen as a learn-and-do manuscript for the student. Take notice that this assignment should not be seen as an example of how to teach the Learning Area to young learners. What is important, though, is the fact that the materials are presented in the correct order in which geometrical concepts should be learnt by learners. In other words, geometry teaching should start with threedimensional (3D) objects (Polyhedra) moving through the unfolding (nets) of these objects and ending in two-dimensional (2D) representations thereof (polygons). This assignment 02 will be returned to every student as soon as it has been assessed. Please spend enough time on this assignment. Think carefully about the aim and meaning of each component in the structure. You will understand that a large part of the assignment is devoted to convey to you the correct terminology and definitions. Please feel free to contact me if you have any queries. Further information can be find in your prescribed book as well as the internet.

Acknowledgement: The majority of the drawings that are used in this assignment were taken from Serra, M. 1997. Discovering Geometry An inductive approach. Key Curriculum Press: Berkeley, USA. Best of luck! Kind regards. Dr. A. M. Dicker AJH van der Walt Building Room 7-43 UNISA (Pretoria Campus) Tel.: (012) 429-4630 Fax: (012) 429-4900 Mail: dickeam@unisa.ac.za Departmental secretary: (012) 429-4583

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SECTION A
ASSIGNMENT 02
Please note that no permission will be granted for late submission for this assignment due to the fact that it will not be possible to mark and return in time before the examination! Due date: 31 MAY 2011 You have to select two activities from the chapter containing Geometry in your textbook (any edition of the prescribed book). Remember that the van Hiele thought levels only apply to geometry. You should preferably do this activity with a group of children. The group can be very small, even 2 5 children will do. It is important to include the following information about the children. Age group Number of children Number of boys and girls The time it took to complete each of the two activities

For each activity do the following: 1. Make a photocopy of the activity and stick it in your answer book 2. Describe the thought levels as defined by Van Hiele through which the children progressed when doing this activity see the prescribed book for these though levels. 3. Discuss the teaching strategies for this activity. 4. What can you deduce about the geometrical knowledge of your learners? 5. Include examples of the work of the learners such as diagrams, models etc. Your assignment will be assessed with the help of the following rubric: Statistics of learners correctly presented Activities selected correctly Teaching strategies correctly described Thought levels correctly indicated Geometrical knowledge of learners discussed Examples of learners work included YES YES YES YES YES YES NO NO NO NO NO NO

SECTION B
Polyhedra and Polygons
1. Solids with flat surfaces

In this assignment you will first learn about one important group of geometric solids called polyhedra. Later in this assignment you will study two types of polyhedrons: prisms and pyramids.
A polygon is a flat figure bounded by line segments. A solid formed by polygons that enclose a single region of space, is called a polyhedron.
The word polyhedron means many faces. The word polygon means many sides. Here are some examples of polyhedra: Note the faces of the polyhedra which are polygons.

For example: Polyhedron (b) has 5 faces of which four are triangles and one is a square. The flat polygonal surfaces of a polyhedron are called it faces. Although a face of a polyhedron includes the polygon and its interior region, we identify the face by naming the polygon that encloses it. When we say that the face of a polyhedron is a triangle, we really mean that the face is a triangular region. Triangle POY is one of the four triangular faces in the polyhedron below.

1. Name the other three faces ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________

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The line segment where two faces meet is called an edge. Line segment PO is one of six edges in the polyhedron.

2. Name the other five. ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ A point of intersection of three or more edges is called a vertex of the polyhedron. Point P is one of the four vertices of the polyhedron. 3. Write down the other three.

_____________________________ _____________________________ _____________________________ A polygon is classified by its number of sides; a polyhedron is classified by its number of faces. The prefixes for polyhedrons are the same as they are for polygons A polygon with four sides is called a tetragon. The prefix penta means five so a pentahedron is a polyhedron with five faces.

4. How would you classify a polyhedron with eight faces? ________________________________________________________________________ If each face of a polyhedron is enclosed by a regular polygon, and each face is congruent to the other faces, and the faces meet at each vertex in exactly the same way, then the polyhedron is called a regular polyhedron. The regular polyhedron shown underneath has 12 faces and is called a regular dodecahedron.

Each solid shown below is a prism, which is a special kind of polyhedron. The two shaded faces of each prism are called the bases of the prism. The faces that are not the bases are called the lateral faces. The lateral faces meet to form the lateral edges.

5.

Try to combine these statements into a definition for a prism.

__________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ Prisms are classified by their bases. For example a prism with triangular bases is a triangular prism, and prisms with hexagonal bases are hexagonal prisms.

Triangular Prism Hexagonal Prism Rectangular Prism A prism whose lateral faces are perpendicular to the bases, is called a right prism. A prism that is not a right prism is called an oblique prism. An altitude of a prism is a perpendicular

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line segment from one base to the plane of the other. The height of a prism is the length of an altitude.

Pyramids
Each solid shown below is a pyramid. The shaded face of each pyramid is called the base of the pyramid. The faces that are not the bases are called the lateral faces. The lateral faces meet to form the lateral edges. The common vertex of the lateral faces is the vertex of the pyramid.

Pyramids are also classified by their bases. The pyramids of Egypt are square pyramids because they have square bases.

The perpendicular line segment from the vertex to the plane of the base is the altitude of the pyramid, and the height is the length of the altitude.

2.

Solids with curved surfaces

Polyhedrons are geometric solids with flat surfaces. A solid with a curved surface can not be a polyhedron. The most well known solid with a curved face that all sports fans known well is the ball, or sphere. A sphere can be thought of as a three-dimensional circle. Oranges are one example of spheres found in nature.

6.

Can you think of others? Write them down.

__________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________

Complete: A sphere is a . . ...

The fixed distance is called the radius, and the fixed point is the center. A hemisphere is half a sphere. The circle on the base of a hemisphere determines a great circle. All the longitude lines on a globe of the earth are great circles. The equator is a great circle.

Another solid with a curved surface is a cylinder. Soup cans, compact discs (CDs) plumbing pipes are shaped like cylinders. Like a prism, a cylinder has two bases that are both parallel and congruent. Instead of polygons, however, the bases of cylinders are circles as well as their interiors. The segment connecting the centers of the circles is called the axis of the cylinder. The radius of the cylinder is the radius of the base. If the axis of a cylinder is perpendicular to the bases then the cylinder is a right cylinder. A cylinder that is not right is oblique. An altitude of a cylinder is a perpendicular segment from the plane of one of the bases to the plane of the other base. The height of a cylinder is the length of an altitude.

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A third type of solid with a curved surface is a cone. Funnels and ice cream cones are shaped like cones. Like a pyramid, a cone has a base and a vertex. The base of a cone is a circle and its interior. The radius of a cone is the radius of the base. The vertex of a cone is a point not in the same plane as the base. The altitude of a cone is the perpendicular segment from the vertex to the plane of the base. The height of a cone is the length of the altitude. If the line segment connecting the vertex of a cone with the center of its base is perpendicular to the base, then it is a right cone. The other cones are oblique.

The Five Platonic Solids

Regular polyhedrons have intrigued mathematicians for thousands of years. They were important to ancient Greek scholars who placed great emphasis on the study of science. Greek philosophers saw the principles of mathematics and science as the guiding forces of the universe. Empedocles (499-430 b C) studied nature and believed that all things are composed of four elements namely earth, fire, air and water. Pythagoras (572-497 b C) conjectured that numbers rule the universe. All forces, both natural and human, obey the neat precise rules of arithmetic. Plato (429-347 b C) combined many of the ideas of Empedocles, Pythagoras and others and explained the nature of all things in his dialogue Timaeus. Plato reasoned that because all objects are three-dimensional, their smallest part, atoms, must be in the solid shape of regular polyhedrons, which are explainable by mathematics. There are only five regular polyhedrons, and these five geometric solids are commonly called the Platonic solids. In Platos view, all things are composed of the five different atoms. He took the idea for four of these atoms earth, air, fire and water from Empedocles. The fifth atom makes up the

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cosmos: the stars and planets in the sky. Plato assigned the shape of each of the five regular solids to each of the five atoms.

THE MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR FIRE IS CALLED A REGULAR TETRAHEDRON (4 FACES) THE MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR WATER IS CALLED A REGULAR ICOSAHEDRON (20 FACES) THE MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR AIR IS CALLED A REGULAR OCTAHEDRON (8 FACES) THE MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR EARTH IS CALLED A REGULAR HEXAHEDRON (6 FACES) THE MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR COSMOS IS CALLED A REGULAR DODECAHEDRON (12 FACES)

7.

Build each of the above mentioned polyhedra. Use toothpicks and modeling clay or jelly tots (sweets) to stick the models together at the vertices (sweets you can eat part of the model after you have finished!) You will have to make the models to answer the questions that follow.

8.

Use paper and make the nets of three of the above mentioned polyhedra and send them together with this assignment. The sides of the polyhedra should not be longer than 5 cm.

9.

You will have to count the number of vertices (V), edges (E), and faces (F) of each polyhedron, before you can fill in the table below.

Polyhedron Tetrahedron Icosahedron Octahedron Hexahedron Dodecahedron

Vertices

Faces

Edges

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10.

There is a special relationship among the number of vertices, faces and edges in a polyhedron. Look for patterns in the table to discover the relationships. By adding or subtracting V, F and E (or some combination of two or three of these operations) you can create a formula that will work for all polyhedrons. This formula was discovered by the Swiss mathematician Leonard Euler (1707-1783), and is commonly known as Eulers formula. What is this formula? _____________________________________________________________________ Now that you have discovered the formula relating the number of vertices, edges and f aces of a polyhedron, use it to answer these questions.

11.

If a solid has 8 faces and 12 vertices, how many edges will it have? _____________________________________________________________________

12.

If a solid has 7 faces and 12 edges, how many vertices will it have? _____________________________________________________________________

13.

If a solid has 6 faces, what are all the possible combinations of vertices and edges it can have? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

Try to draw the polyhedra to verify that the combinations of faces, vertices and edges are possible.

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Plato argued that fire atoms are in the shape of regular tetrahedrons because fire is the lightest atom and the tetrahedron has the least number of faces. In addition, the regular tetrahedron has the sharpest points and, therefore, it must be responsible for the sharp sting of fire. Plato further reasoned that because fire, air and water react most often with one another, they must be composed of atoms that are similar in shape. Because the faces of the regular octahedron, regular icosahedron, and regular tetrahedron are equilateral triangles, then air, water, and fire must have these shapes. It followed that because air is the second lightest of these three atoms, it must be in the shape of the octahedron because the octahedron has the second least number of faces. Therefore the water atom is the shape of the regular icosahedron. Plato then reasoned that the earth atoms are in the shape of cubes, or regular hexahedrons, because the cube is very stable, like earth. The fifth and remaining regular polyhedron, the dodecahedron, is so unlike the others, having pentagonal faces, that Plato argued it must be in the shape of the atoms of the cosmos. What would each of the five Platonic solids look like when unfolded? Use the pictures on the previous page to help visualize the solids. There is more than one possible way to unfold each polyhedron.

14.

Complete the picture below to show what the regular tetrahedron would look like, if it were cut open along the three lateral edges and unfolded into one piece. One face is missing. (The cut-open figures of solids are called the net of the solid.)

15.

Complete the picture of what the regular hexahedron would look like if it were cut open along the lateral edges and three top edges, then unfolded. Two faces are missing. How many other patterns which agrees with the restrictions above, are possible for a regular hexahedron? Sketch them.

Note: There are 36 hexaminoes (figures build with six squares) of which 12 are nets of a cube but only six of them agree with the restriction in your question.

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16.

Below is a picture of what the regular icosahedron would look like if it were cut along some edges and unfolded into one piece. When folded back together, the five top triangles meet at one top point. The edge labelled X will line up with which edge: a b, or c ______________________________________________________________

HINT: TRACE, FOLD AND PASTE

17.

The regular octahedron is similar to the icosahedron but has only eight equilateral triangles as faces. Complete the picture below to show what the net of an octahedron would look like if it were cut along some edges and unfolded into one piece. Two faces are missing.

18.

The regular dodecahedron is made with 12 regular pentagons. Suppose you were to cut the dodecahedron into equal parts. They would resemble two flowers, each having five pentagon-shaped petals around a centre pentagon. If half of the dodecahedron were cut along edges connecting the petals and then unfolded, what would it look like? Complete the pattern for half the dodecahedron.

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19.

The top half of the cube below is coloured red and the bottom half is coloured blue. Colour the nets below the cube so that it will make the cube in the picture once it is folded. (The nets in the answer are already partially coloured in red.) Use the two colours when you answer the question!

20.

The following list of objects is given. Complete the table by linking each of the every day objects to the geometrical objects. The first one is done as an example.
triangular prism triangular pyramid rectangular prism square prism octagonal prism heptagonal pyramid square pyramid pentagonal prism hexagonal prism hemisphere

cylinder sphere cone

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Die Tomb of Egyptian rulers Container for a scoop of ice-cream A box of breakfast cereal A round kitchen bowl Birthplace of a bee Stop sign Toblerone chocolate Childrens play tent

A B C D E F G H I J K L

square prism

10 Moon 11 Can of tuna fish 12 Book

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Polygons
A polygon is a closed geometric figure in a plane, formed by connecting line segments endpoint to endpoint with each segment intersecting exactly two others. Examples of polygons

Examples of figures that are not polygons

Each line segment is called a side of the polygon. Each endpoint where the sides meet is called a vertex of the polygon. A convex polygon is a polygon in which no line segment connecting two vertices is outside the polygon. A concave polygon is a polygon in which at least one line segment connecting two vertices is outside the polygon.

Convex polygons

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Concave polygons

When referring to a specific polygon, list in succession the capital letters representing consecutive vertices. For example, the pentagon underneath can be referred to as pentagon ABCDE. You can also call it pentagon DCBAE.

When the polygon is a triangle, you can use the symbol. For example, ABC means triangle ABC. If two vertices of a polygon are connected by a side, then they are consecutive or adjacent vertices. If two sides share a common vertex, then they are consecutive adjacent sides. Two line segments or two angles are congruent if and only if they have the same measures. Polygons that are exactly the same size and shape are congruent polygons. For convex polygons this means two things: If the angles and the sides of one polygon are congruent to the corresponding angles and sides of another polygon, then the two polygons are congruent. For example, if the four angles of quadrilateral CAMP are congruent to the four corresponding angles of quadrilateral SITE, and if the four sides of quadrilateral CAMP are congruent to the four corresponding sides of quadrilateral SITE, then quadrilateral SITE is congruent to quadrilateral CAMP. When you write the symbolic statement of congruence of the two figures, the letters of the corresponding congruent angles should be written in an order that indicates the correspondences.

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The definition also means that if two polygons are congruent, then their corresponding angles and sides are congruent. For example, if it is given that quadrilateral CAMP is congruent to quadrilateral SITE, it follows that their four pairs of corresponding angles and four pairs of corresponding sides are also congruent. The perimeter of a polygon is the sum of the lengths of its sides. The polygon shown below has a perimeter of 37 cm.

The figure below shows the diagonals of polygon ALRE are AR and LE, and ENTIP are PN, TE, NI and TP.

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In the figure below, FL, DE and CU are not diagonals.

The figures shown below are equilateral polygons. (All sides are equal)

The figures shown below are not equilateral polygons.

The figures shown below are equiangular polygons.

The figures shown below are not equiangular polygons.

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The figures shown below are regular polygons. (All sides and all angles are equal.)

The figures shown below are not regular polygons.

21.

Name each of the polygons below:

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22.

Make a figure next to each of the following to explain its meaning:

a. Quadrilateral

b. Parallelogram

c. Isosceles triangle ABC

d. A median of a triangle

e. The altitude of a triangle

f. An angle bisector in a triangle

g. A right angled triangle ABC

h. An equilateral triangle ABC

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i. A line segment AB

j. AB//CD

k. Vertical opposite angles

l. Complementary angles

m. Supplementary angles

n. A hexagon

o. An octagon

Complete this assignment and place it with Section A in an assignment cover.