Making Rectangles
We’ve tried some cooperative challenges over the last couple of weeks. In the most recent, teams of four students each had to make four identical rectangles from a set of sixteen different shapes. The catch was that no one was allowed to use their voice nor to make any gestures. Team members could give a piece to another person if we thought it would help them, but we could not reach over and take a shape from someone else.
All of the teams were successful at working very silently. Some managed to make four identical rectangles; some did not. But while the task was to make the rectangles following the rules, the overall goals were to:
- Respond to the needs of others
- Help others to do things for themselves
I’m wondering how students felt during the activity; what helped; and how well the students feel they did at meeting these two overall goals.
it was helpful because we the silence helped us to focus. but not being able to talk to anybody made it a really difficult challenge. my team was successful but I felt like they did it for me.
I felt pretty frustrated at first then after a while i started to understand it a bit better and nearing the end i was having a lot of fun
Aamnaaya
I think that this activity felt quite challenging. It was hard for me to think about what the shape could be and how to build it. One rule that was most challenging to me was the rule that you cant take other people’s pieces. That rule was very hard for me because you cant ask for pieces or anything and it was harder that way.
One way It helped to figure out how big the rectangle is that I saw that the longest piece was six units long. I think that the hardest situation I had was when i had the 4 X 4 piece. It was especially hard because it took up most of the shape. Other than that I think that this activity was really great.
thank you for showing us this game, it was a lot of fun and challenging because we were not allowed to talk but it was helpful too. Me and my team were successful but it got really stressful because we were not allowed to talk and i really needed to but at the end it turned out we didn’t really need to talk.
this is awesome and kinda hard at the same time!
this is going to help us in are geometry
I’m glad you noticed the connection to that area of mathematics. How did you think your group did at helping each other to work independently?
What do you think is awesome about it? What questions does it make you ask? Is there something that surprised you?
I think its cool and tricky to not talk and to make the same rectangle
How were you able to recognise the needs of others?
Why was it cool not to talk? Did that affect your ability to think? Did it change the way you thought about the solution?
how did you come up
with this idea what got
you waning to come
up with this idea good
work.
This activity was created by people from the University of Cambridge who specialise in mathematics and education. I love their problems & projects because they promote a wide variety of thinking, problem-solving, mathematics & communication skills. You will have seen links to some of these problems in some assignments. nrich.maths.org
it was hard working in silence because we could not ask for pieces or say”here i think you might need this piece”.it was also hard because we couldn’t use hand gestures.but over all it was really fun
What did you do instead when you couldn’t communicate with your voice or with gestures? How were you able to find the solution & help others work independently?
When you could not communicate as usual, what did you do? How did you help others to work independently?