TESSELLATIONS

One of the topics taught in geometry pertains to regular polygons. During the examination of regular I introduce students to tessellations. The students are provide a template of regular polygons and they are directed to create a tessellation using two or more regular polygons Before the students begin their projects we have a class discussion centered around which combination of regular polygons will fit together to form tessellations.

A tessellation is a an arangement of closed shapes thatcompletely covers a plane without overlapping or having gaps. In the projects that I assigned the students used regular polygons. In order for a set of regular polygons to create a tessellation, the measure of all the angles that come together at a point must add to 360 degrees. A tessellation that uses only one shape is called a pure tessellation and a tessellation that involves more than one shape is called a semi-pure tessellation.

Following are some of the tessellations created by my students during the 1996-97 and 1997-98 school years. The students created their tessellations by reproducing the templates provided on poster board or by cutting out shapes from construction paper and then pasting them onto poster board.

PROJECT	STUDENT NAME	PROJECT	STUDENT NAME	PROJECT	STUDENT NAME
	BRAD LANGE		SARA HOLLADAY		MARY WOODS
	IRINA ERMAN		BRYAN WILLIAMS		STACY TAM
	ERIN EISENHOUR		NICOLE GATHRIGHT		MELISSA PRESCOTT
	LAURA MATTHEWS		RHIANNON GOOD		PAYAM NABEZADEH
	RAQUEL MASSEY		LAUREN HAGEN		NIKKI BLACK
	LAURA MONAHAN