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by Michelle Youngs.
The Puzzle Corner this month comes from the great American puzzle genius
of a century ago, Sam Loyd, and was originally published with the name "The
Royal Road to Mathematics." Shape It Up, as we have renamed it, is similar
to tangrams, but uses only five pieces that are all different from each other,
unlike the seven tangram pieces which include several duplicate shapes. In this
activity, students are challenged to cut out the five shapes and use them to
make eight geometric figures. (In order to help you conserve paper, each student
will need only half of the first student page.)
This activity will challenge students' spatial visualization abilities as
they learn to see how the five puzzle pieces can be put together to form each
of the eight figures. Students can be told that puzzle pieces may be flipped
over however, there is at least one solution for each shape which does not require
this. For older students there is also the potential to discuss geometry as
they identify the characteristics of the figures they create. Once students
have solved the eight figures given, they can be challenged to create their
own figures and trade them with classmates to solve. In fact, if your students
come up with any especially creative or unusual figures using the five puzzle
pieces, send us copies of their work and we may print them in a future issue
of AIMS.
Worksheet 1 | Worksheet
2
We hope you and your students enjoy this puzzle.
Puzzle Corner |
