Interactive Whiteboards and Shapes
30 Aug
Shapes and Interactive Whiteboards go hand in hand. Every IWB software includes a number of shapes that children can manipulate and use. A simple square can be stretched to make a rectangle, for example. All IWB software give you lines, rectangles and ellipses. Some give you other shapes such as triangles, diamonds and stars. One can create any shape simply from the basics. For example, even the most rudimentry software will allow you create a semi-circle using a circle, a line and a rectangle (see images below).
Step 1: Draw a circle
Step 2: Draw a line through the middle
Step 3: Select / draw a rectangle to cover the part you don't want
Step 4: Delete the rectangle shape to reveal your semi-circle
Shapes on an IWB can be used from Junior Infants up to 6th class for loads of different activities. We have already seen how shapes can be used for sorting, matching and patterns in earlier articles so in the screencast below, we will look at creating shape robots and creating our own 2D polygons using lines. Both these examples show how to group items. Once that’s out of the way, we’ll use our new found 2D polygons, we’ll show some work on symmetry and tesselations.
So, 3D shapes and the Interactive Whiteboard – how does it work? While actual discrete objects are much better for exploring 3D shapes, there are a few web sites out there which allow you to manipulate a number of 3D shapes. My favourite is the BGFL resource, which allows the user to investigate all sorts of 3D shapes that may not have come in your box – such as Octahedrons, Hemi-spheres and Tetrahedrons. By clicking on each shape, it allows you to rotate it to see the number of sides, vertices and faces. It also allows you to print out a net of the shape so you can create your own physical 3D shape. Whilst there isn’t a lot of physical interaction with the IWB, (you can point and click on the buttons), there is great scope for conversations.
There’s lots of other resources out there which help out with 3D shapes so feel free to add them to the comments below.
