Symmetric Designs

Now it is time for students to see how they could use their knowledge of reflections in a career.

Give each student a copy of the attached Notecatcher handout and display slide 13. Explain to students that each quadrant has a different prompt within the given image. Direct students to use the empty space beside the image to write each response as they watch an interview with Leslie Deer.

• Quadrant I: What did you find interesting?

• Quadrant II: What does Leslie Deer do for a living?

• Quadrant III: How does this information relate to you?

• Quadrant IV: What question(s) do you have?

Show slide 14 and play for students the Apparel Designing and Culture video on the slide. This video is an interview with Leslie Deer, who shares her knowledge of her tribe and how her culture influences her work in her career as a fashion designer.

Show slide 15 and give each student a copy of the attached Perfecting Patterns handout. Instruct students to get into groups of 3–4 or assign groups. Then share with the class the Pass the Problem strategy.

Direct students to follow the directions for “Student A.” Acting as Student A, each student should write their name at the top of the upper-left box. Instruct everyone to think about the ribbonwork designs that they have learned about and then create their own polygon design (preimage) in Quadrant II. For the sake of time, recommend that students create a preimage using five vertices at most. The more complex the design, the more time this activity will take. As needed, reference the image on the slide—which has more than five vertices—to explain this.

Move to slide 16 and have everyone pass their paper to the person on their right within their group. With their groupmate’s paper, have students now act as Student B. Each student should write their name at the top of the upper-right box. Direct everyone to label the vertices of Student A’s design. Remind students that the letters should go in alphabetical order but can go clockwise or counterclockwise.

Direct the class to use the space in their handout to create a table of the corresponding points if the preimage was reflected over the x-axis. In other words, students should use what they have learned during this lesson to write the new ordered pairs for the corresponding vertices of the image without drawing the reflection.

Move to slide 17 and have everyone pass their paper to the person on their right within their group. Have students now act as Student C and to write their name at the top of the lower-left box. Direct everyone to check Student B’s table. Allow time for students to check, talk through, and correct any mistakes.

Direct the class to use the space in their handout to create a table of the corresponding points if the preimage (from Student A) was reflected over the y-axis. In other words, students should use what they have learned during this lesson to write the new ordered pairs for the corresponding vertices of the image without drawing the reflection.

Show slide 18 and have everyone pass their paper back to Student A. Give each student a piece of graph paper.

Instruct everyone to copy their preimage to their graph paper and then plot the points from Student B’s table and Student C’s table. Once students have done so, have them work together to adjust any points that need to be corrected.

Display slide 19 and direct students to complete the ribbonwork design by completing the pattern in Quadrant IV.

Have students use four colors to color their design. Remind the class to use contrasting light and dark colors like the Osage tribe does. Consider giving students the challenge of using more than four colors while keeping the symmetry.