CTC I Summary 12/3/12

Yesterday we learned about dimensions and perceptions via a little story telling!

We built a "flat city" with houses and streets that connected with one another and heard a version of the classic Edwin A. Abbott novel Flatland. This led us into fairly deep territory where we thought about what a 
2-dimensional object might look like to a 1-dimensional object, and in turn, what a 4-dimensional object might look like to a 3-dimensional object (us!). I provided the students with a handout which explains how a 4-D "hypercube" or *"tesseract" is created, and challenged them to think about how a 5-D object might be constructed. I promised them a look at a 5-D "cube" or "penteract" and here it is:

Better yet, here is a 5-cube penteract projected into 3D:

We moved from our dimension story into a story about perception and played with shadows. This story is well illustrated by the claymation video below. This is not the version we enjoyed, but it is a wonderful adaptation of Plato's Cave. Watch it with your student and let it open up a discussion! Are we limited by our own experiences?

For "play at home" I assigned a visual puzzle called Block Twins. You can find the color version HERE. Warning: the answer is listed below the puzzle sheet, so you might want to print it out for your student or sit with them while they look at it so they don't inadvertently scroll to the bottom. Answers will be shared Monday!

*term was spelled incorrectly on handout -- sorry!

We use curriculum from Art of Inquiry, LLC