A Glorious Floor
A WebQuest for 7th Grade Geometers
Designed by Rodney A. Worthington
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Teacher Page
Introduction
Congratulations! You and your four colleagues have been chosen
the help decorate the new Hebo Multicultural Museum. The Museum
has five exhibition Halls: one each for African, Celtic, Indian &
East Asian, Islamic, and Native American art. The Halls meet in a
pentagonal courtyard, illustrated below:
Each Hall of Art connects to the base of a trapezoid, and the five
trapezoids surround a central pentagon.
The Board of Directors has commissioned your team to decorate the central courtyard with tiling patterns which will reflect the influence of each of the five cultures on display.
Task
Your team will submit a paper tiling design for review. This
design will show how the central pentagon and each of the five trapezoids
about it are to be decorated. Each team member will be responsible
for designing the layout of one trapezoid. Each trapezoid
should include geometric patterns inspired by the culture
of its connecting Hall.
The tiling design of the central pentagon will be the responsibility
of the entire group, and it will be focused on congruence and similarity
in quadrilaterals: particularly squares, rectangles, rhombi, and
other parallelograms. It is hoped that the central pentagon will
show influences from the five cultures as well.
The Board will evaluate your design based on its originality, on
how well it incorporates cultural patterns, and on how well the central
pentagon expresses congruence and similarity in quadrilaterals.
Process
There are 5 steps in the design process:Step 1 - Assemble Design Team
You have been assigned with 4 of your classmates to form a Design Team. Your first task is to name your team. Next, your team must decide which member will be responsible for which culture. You will receive a worksheet to use in Step 2 - fill in the spaces for name, date, Design Team, and culture. Your team should review the Evaluation Tables below before proceeding.
Step 2 - Cultural Art Training Convention
All students will be reassigned to one of 5 groups according to the culture they are studying - for example, all students who are studying Islamic art will form a new group. These "expert" groups will examine web sites related to their culture and fill in their worksheets for later use. Available computers will be divided among the expert groups. Every group will examine the following two sites for general information:
General Tiling Information
General Tessellation Information
(click "visit site", if necessary, & then look at "regular tessellations"; if there is time, look at some of the other tessellations as well.)
After visiting the general sites, each expert group will visit the sites listed for its culture below. These images show geometric patterns used for tilings, masks, clothing, drawings, etc. While examining the images on these sites, fill in the worksheet. Remember, you will be evaluated on the usefulness of your worksheet. Make notes and sketches in the space provided. You are encouraged to compare notes and observations with other experts in your group.
African
Mask
Costume
Masks
Cloth
Cloth
Cloth
Celtic
Graphics (Click on at least 8 examples)
Tiles
Construction (5 pages)
Drawing knotwork
Indian & East Asian
Indian
Indian Construction
Chinese
Tiles
Various Examples
(Click "visit site", if necessary, & then "Cultures". Look at the Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Korean examples)
Islamic
Art (Look at the examples, and then how to create your own)
Construction
Construction (continued)
Tiles
Examples (Click "visit site", if necessary, & then "Cultures". Look at the Islamic examples)
Native American
Tiles
Square & Octagon (5 pages)
Landscaping
9-Dot Square
Step 3 - Design Team Collaboration
Your original Design Team will reconvene and collaborate on the overall layout of your paper tiling design. Remember, creativity is an element of your evaluation. Perhaps you will blend the borders between each trapezoid; perhaps you will merge one culture into another. Your team should also discuss the general design of the central pentagon at this time.
Step 4 - Individual Work
Each team member will design and decorate their trapezoid. Decide whether to color your design or not. Use rulers, compass, etc. as needed. Remember, you should be able to point out geometric elements in your design which reflect those found in your culture of study. After the trapezoid is decorated, carefully cut it out with scissors.
Step 5 - Group Work
The team will design and decorate the central pentagon as a group, focusing on congruence and similarity in quadrilaterals. This is to be a collaborative effort, so every member should contribute.
Once the central pentagon is finished, arrange the 5 trapezoids around it and attach your completed design to a piece of rigid backing material. Beside each trapezoid, place a label identifying its culture and the designer's name. Write your team name on the backing material and submit your design and the 5 individual worksheets for evaluation.
Evaluation
The Board will assign final scores for the project by adding the
amount of points earned by a person's team to the amount they earned
individually. These are evenly weighted, so keep in mind that
your team score accounts for 50% of your final individual score. It
pays to work well together.
Group Evaluation Table
|
|
Beginning 1 |
Developing 4 |
Accomplished 7 |
Exemplary 10 |
Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Creativity (10%)
|
Product shows little or no originality. | Product shows some degree of originality. | Product shows acceptable degree of originality. | Product is surprisingly original. | |
|
Cooperation (10%)
|
Group openly disagrees and cannot resolve conflicts. | Group disagrees at times, and has trouble resolving conflicts. | Group may disagree at times, but is able to resolve differences. | Group works together flawlessly. | |
|
Product Quality (10%)
|
Product is sloppy, or shows lack of concern for work. | Product contains some errors or imprecision. | Product is well rendered and precise. | Product is rendered with great detail and care. | |
|
Product Depth (10%)
|
Product shows little detail or complexity. | Product has some detail, and a small degree of complexity. | Product has an acceptable level of detail and complexity. | Product is highly detailed, with an impressive degree of complexity. | |
|
Required Elements (10%)
|
Product contains few or no squares, rectangles, rhombi, or parallelograms, and does not display congruence or similarity. | Product contains some squares, rectangles, rhombi, or parallelograms, but displays little congruence or similarity. | Product contains squares, rectangles, rhombi, and parallelograms,
and displays concepts of congruence and similarity. |
Product combines squares, rectangles, rhombi, and parallelograms in original ways to display the concepts of congruence and similarity. |
| |
Beginning 1 |
Developing 4 |
Accomplished 7 |
Exemplary 10 |
Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Creativity (10%)
|
Product shows little or no originality. | Product shows some degree of originality. | Product shows acceptable degree of originality. | Product is surprisingly original. | |
|
Product Quality (10%)
|
Product is sloppy, or shows lack of concern for work. | Product contains some errors or imprecision. | Product is well rendered and precise. | Product is rendered with great detail and care. | |
|
Product Depth (10%)
|
Product shows little detail or complexity. | Product has some detail, and a small degree of complexity. | Product has an acceptable level of detail and complexity. | Product is highly detailed, with an impressive degree of complexity. | |
|
Worksheet (10%)
|
Worksheet incomplete. | Worksheet complete, but has little useful information. | Worksheet complete and useful. | Worksheet thoroughly complete and highly detailed. | |
|
Cultural Elements (10%)
|
Contains no elements traceable to assigned culture. | Contains only one element traceable to assigned culture. | Contains two elements traceable to assigned culture. | Contains several elements traceable to assigned culture. |
Conclusion
By working together as a team, you have created a unique work of
art and learned about the similarities and differences that exist between
cultures.
Your assignment may be finished, but you shouldn't stop here! There are 4 other cultures to explore and endless geometric patterns to discover. Don't limit yourselves to floors, either. You can design patterns for windows, plazas, notebooks, shoe soles . . . the possibilities are endless!
Credits & References
Thanks to:
Linda LoBue, for the original idea, and for trusting me with her classroom.
Mike Charles, for his enthusiasm, support, and sage advice.
Bernie Dodge and Tom March, for coming up with the idea of webquests
in the first place.
Everything you ever wanted to know about webquests may be found at The WebQuest Page. The Design Patterns page offers templates ready for use with a large number of topics.
We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.
Background image and geometric design © copyright 1997 by Xah Lee, used with permission.
Last updated on (06/04/04). Based on a template from The WebQuest Page