Today in class we discussed the video “Notes on a Triangle” by René Jodoin and the National Film Board of Canada. I found myself mesmerized by this video. Who knew you could create so many shapes from a single triangle? As Jennifer mentioned in one of our readings for next week, I think this video could be cool to show to many different grades, and I’m sure each age would get something different out of it. We discussed how this video would be great for teaching transformations and slides, different types of triangles, and even other 2-D shapes that can be formed from triangles.
After discussing all of the different concepts contained in this one video in class, I thought a great way to bring the learning into a more personal space for my students would be to have them create their own version of the video. I would use the Stop Motion Studio app and have students draw or create triangles and other 2-D shapes out of paper. They could then play with the different translations, rotations, and reflections they can do with the shapes they have chosen and sequence them into a pattern like Jodoin does in the video. This would be an activity to do with older grades (perhaps grade 5 and up) as it would require quite a lot of patience and concentration, and translations do not appear in the BC IRP until grade 5. I’m excited about building this idea into a lesson plan and I hope I get to use it in a class someday!
My education experience 