Designing a Lantern (Middle School)
This lesson engages students in creating a lantern for a calm classroom environment. Students begin by analyzing a class survey identifying what’s calming for them and use this information to select representative images. The design challenge requires redrawing the images as symmetric shapes and cutting them out along the edges of a triangular prism lantern. The lanterns can be displayed in the classroom with a student-created playlist.
Lesson Objectives
1.
Students will be able to identify shapes that symbolize a calming environment.
2.
Students will be able to sketch symbols with reflective symmetry.
3.
Students will be able to construct a lantern that incorporates symbols that represent the ideas of their team.
CC Standards
CCSS.Math.Content.6.G.A.4
Represent three-dimensional figures using nets made up of rectangles and triangles, and use the nets to find the surface area of these figures. Apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
CCSS.Math.Content.8.G.A.2
Understand that a two-dimensional figure is congruent to another if the second can be obtained from the first by a sequence of rotations, reflections, and translations; given two congruent figures, describe a sequence that exhibits the congruence between them.
HCD Process
Engage and Understand classmates’ needs.
Debrief and Organize the information gathered from the survey
Create a design that is calming for their classmates.
Design Kit List of Materials:
Frixion pens, Color pencils or markers, Transparent tape, LED lights, Patty Paper (full sheet), Lantern template: Cardstock paper pre-folded (15”x12”), Scissors, Rulers-12 in, Colored Cellophane, Grid papers
The content presented on this webpage is developed by the FRACTAL Research Group at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with the support of a National Science Foundation grant to Gloriana González (Principal Investigator) and Saadeddine Shehab (Co-Principal Investigator) for the project "Engaging Teachers in Integrating Human-Centered Design for Geometry Problem-based Instruction" Grant No. DRL-2300689. Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.