Geometry Transformations

8-10 yrs old

11-13 yrs old

14-18 yrs old

Math & Economics

Challenge your students to build 3D models of various transformations. They can focus on one type, all four, or you can differentiate!

Submitted By: Adam Casbarian

August 7, 2020

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Skills

Creativity
Critical Thinking
Project Based Learning

Supporting Files

Geometry Transformations Minecraft World

This contains the entire lesson file for the Minecraft World.

Learning Objectives

Students will demonstrate knowledge of translation, rotation, reflection, and dilation through modeling challenges provided within the world.

Guiding Ideas

For Translation:

What does translation look like? How does it look horizontally, vertically, or diagonally? How does the shape change and what stays the same?

For Rotation:

What does rotation look like? How does clockwise and counterclockwise matter? Is it easier or more difficult to rotate 90 degrees or 180 degrees? How does the shape change and what stays the same?

For Reflection:

What does reflection look like? How does distance from a line of reflection matter? How does reflection change when you reflect diagonally? What things in life demonstrate reflection?

For Dilation:

What is dilation? Where is it seen in life? How do we use dilation on a daily basis? How do we describe dilation to others so that it makes sense? How does dilation affect length, area, and volume?

Student Activities

Students can complete 1, 2, 3, or all 4 challenges or they can complete only the one you're focusing on for that day. Alternatively, you can ask students to complete two of the four and let them decide on their own!

The lesson is designed to be done individually or with partners. The students should download the world to their device and enter it within creative mode for the best experience.

Students should document their experiences by taking photos/screenshots of each completed activity. This can be turned in as a portfolio or you can have them insert these into a document for grading.

Performance Expectations

As this is a pretty structured world, you only need to worry about:

Time - set a time limit of approximately 60 minutes per transformation. If you have students complete all four, this will likely be a week-long project.
Product - Students should take picture(s) of their finished project. You may ask them to take multiple pictures from different angles.
Quality - You may grade as right/wrong or depending on the age, you may want to develop a rubric for some of the more challenging activities provided.