Illustrative Mathematics
Regular Tessellations of the Plane
Bringing together the young artists and the young organizers in your class, this lesson takes that popular topic of tessellations and gives it algebraic roots. After covering a few basic properties and definitions, learners attack the...
Curated OER
Navajo Weaving: A Lesson in Math and Tradition
Combine geometry and tradition with a lesson that spotlights Navajo weaving. The book, The Goat in the Rug by Charles L. Blood and Martin Link hooks scholars before watching a video of Navajo people tending their sheep and beginning...
Illustrative Mathematics
Hexagonal Pattern of Beehives
Young geometers and biologists investigate the math of nature in an activity that is just the bee's knees. Participants will study the tessellations of hexagons in a beehive, along with the natural rationale behind the specific shape....
Curated OER
Math Challenges
Students engage their critical thinking skills to solve challenging math problems. In these problem solving lessons, student work with tessellations, weights/measurement, reasoning, surface area, geometric shapes, and algebraic procedures.
Wake Forest University
Authentic Activities for Connecting Mathematics to the Real World
Check out the handout from a presentation that contains a collection of high school algebra projects connecting a variety of mathematics to the real world. Activities range from simple probabilities to calculus. The activities...
Other
Center for Technology and Teacher Education:exploring and Creating Tessellations
This site is a Geometer's Sketch Pad lesson plan where students explore tessellations through reflections, rotations, and translations.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
The Math Forum: What Is a Tessellation?
The Math Forum defines and illustrates geometric tessellation.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
The Math Forum: Tessellation Tutorials
This site provides a wealth of tutorials regarding tessellation. Content ranges from basic definitions of what tessellation is, to the math behind it, to various learning activities.
Other
Backtracking: An Interactive Tessellation Game
Click on the squares to move the tiles and create the correct pattern. A fun way to explore the concept of tessellations.
Math Is Fun
Math Is Fun: Tessellation Artist
Students will have fun making tessellations in this activity, which they can then print out.
University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge: Nrich: Tessellating Triangles
The challenge at this one page website, involves tessellation and triangle. Should you accept this challenge, you will find helpful teacher notes and the solution available right at the website.
Wolfram Research
Wolfram Math World: Semiregular Tessellations
This one page Mathworld site has a number of examples of semiregular tessellations. A definition and a small amount of related information is given at the bottom of the page.
Math Cats
Math Cats: Visit Tessellation Town on Tile Island!
Go to Tessellation Town on Tile Island and create a variety of tessellations.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Nctm: Figure This: Envelopes
Explore tessellations with real world applications in this activity from the NCTM Math Challenges for Families series. Figure out what shape you would use to create a legal envelope from a single sheet of paper. Then discover how...
Other
Paper Mosaics
A unique combination of origami paper folding and mathematical tessellations create these stunning works of art. Definitely not for the beginning paper folder to try! Site includes printable patterns.
Wolfram Research
Wolfram Math World: Space Filling Polyhedron
This MathWorld site shows pictures of polyhedra which can fill space. A discussion of these figures follows.
University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge: Nrich: Roll These Dice
Sharpen your problem solving, sequencing, and spatial reasoning skills playing this interactive game, Roll The Dice. See how many different paths you can take to end up with the same result.