Math Applet Review

Geometric Solids

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=70

The first applet I reviewed was Geometric solids. This applet is an interactive tool that students can use to explore the different properties of 3D shapes. Students have the capability to rotate the shape and select/count number of faces edges and vertices. Students may enlarge the shapes and also change the color of the parts of the shape. This tool would be useful for students both when they are becoming familiar with the terms faces, edges, and vertices, but also when students are becoming familiar with specific types of shapes like cubes, tetrahedrons, and dodecahedron. As well as the shapes in 3D students can choose to view the shapes as a net, or basically 'the unfolded version of the 3D shapes.' There is also a tool on the applet that allows the student to create their own shape net.

This tool would be useful for varying ages of students and is also great for students to explore at different levels of understanding 3D shapes. This applet would be fairly easy to incorporate into the use of a lesson but I do not believe the applet its self could be the center of a entire lesson simply because it is not very complex and does not take much time to explore the applets full capabilities.

Tessellation Creator

http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=202

The next applet I chose to review was called, Tessellation creator. Tessellations are shapes that combine over and over again in order to form a pattern. The use of tessellations are useful because they help students better visualize how different types of shapes have different size angles hence why certain shape combinations do not fit snug together. The use of tessellation is a creative concept that allows students to explore shapes in a different way. This type of activity would be beneficial for students who are creative or in to art and would help get them engaged.

This applet let students choose several different shapes (triangles-dodecahedrons) in an attempt to fit them together to form a tessellation. The shapes can be rotated copied and morphed in shape in order to make them fit together the way the student wants. Eventually the end product results in a colorful tessellation. I remember doing a tessellation of my own in 8th grade but we used our own original shape or object to create a tessellation. This type of applet would be a great way to introduce that kind of project or be used in place of physically building a tessellation on paper. This applet has the potential to be really engaging for students but I wish it had a feature where you could create your own shape or import a clipart or photo to experiment with tessellation in a different way.

Overall I like the idea of using math applets in lessons and trying to incorporate the use of these interactive activities into math learning. Technology is something that really intrigues students and anytime you can convince students that the learning process is fun or like a game in anyway they tend to be more willing to get on board.