Some More Great Geometry Models

A few weeks ago I heard from a teacher, Patrick Waters, who goes by the handle "woodshopcowboy."

According to his blog,

I’m a late-twenties, early-career, woodshop-esque teacher in a math/science department at a very progressive therapeutic private school for students with neurological differences.  My job involves a little of everything: lesson planning, curriculum building, community outreach, technology literacy (hence this blog), gardening, erecting permanent structures on campus, outdoor environmental education, wearing a tool belt, generally being awesome and so on.

I'm a little late in blogging about Patrick's blog post (sorry!) but he pointed to what his middle school kids did last month in SketchUp. He used some of my GeomeTricks books for ideas. You'll have to click over to his blog for the full slideshow, but I picked a few to show here:

 These kids have clearly discovered the Styles window!

 

And this one isn't a regular tessellation, but I'm including it because it's so pretty. If it tiled, it would make a really cool wallpaper for a kid's room:

 I loved this bit on his blog page:

Ms. Roskes projects have a real wow factor in the classroom.  My students would shout my name to show off their work, get frustrated during transitions away from the computer and talk incessantly about how awesome the class is going during lunch.

... She wrote her manuals in a clear, concise and picture-heavy style suitable for high-school and collegiate level work.  My classes skew to the younger range, about fourth through seventh grade, of reading comprehension so I found them less useful as step-by-step guides.  I mainly used them for my own growth as a CAD draftsman and a source of inspiration.

Enjoy the student’s work!