Fall SAVY 2019: Day 1 – Spatial Smarts (Grades 3/4)
Dear SAVY Parents,
What a great day of fun and learning! The children jumped right in to the activities and discussions despite the idea of spatial reasoning as a mathematical task being a relatively new topic of study for them. Math is the study of quantity, structure, space, and change. The concepts are fascinating, challenging, and everyone enjoyed making real-world connections to career opportunities and professional tasks. For example, we discussed What critical information can a meteorologist effectively communicate about weather events if he can accurately model and transform storm surge images? Check out this video featuring unique 3D imaging used by meteorologists. Consider with your child what other ways technology and spatial reasoning can be used to help people understand risks related to other potential natural disasters such as earthquakes. Can such a technique be used in evaluating building safety for earthquakes? What are the implications for wildfires?
First, students learned to explore and define space in 0, 1, 2, and 3 dimensions. It is the habit of a scholar to communicate ideas with clarity, so we learned a lot of new vocabulary for our discussions. Everyone enjoyed moving, describing, and analyzing transformations (movement in space). Yes, we got to move our own bodies in translations (slides), rotation (turns around stationary point), reflections (flips), and the combination move of the glide reflection!
After lunch, we explored the room for lines of symmetry in different structures. How can a portrait artist or sculptor create images and structures that use dimensions and symmetry for impact and relevance? What techniques can we observe that artists use to express three dimensions (3D) in images that are two dimensions (2D)? How can we observe symmetry in 3D solids and what are the implications (more on the on our final day)? Thankfully we weren’t still hungry, because we analyzed beautiful food images from a culinary artist for unique presentations. How does the visual imagery of food impact anticipation of its taste or quality? Can symmetry and structure impact our others senses and feelings about a dish and its value?
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