Shapes, they are all around us.  From the tiles on our wall to the food that we eat. They are a basic mathematical concept we learn from the early stages of school that surround us every day.  Even the ability groups we fall into are named based on our basic shapes to help reinforce these each day – squares, circles and so on

When discussing the use of shape, we focused upon the art of tessellation.  This is the repetition of a shape that fits together seamlessly over a surface area with no cracks (How did Tessellation Transform from Method to Art?, 2016).  Tessellation can be seen everywhere, whether that be on the floor we walk on, the food we eat, that nature surrounding us or the world cultures we learn.

There are different forms of tessellation; regular, semi-regular and other. With regular tessellation there are only three possible outcomes, squares, triangles and hexagons and only one of those regular shapes is repeated to create the piece of art.  Semi-regular tessellation uses two or more regular shapes to create the tiling, with these there are only eight products.  The other tessellation can use many different shapes, including curves (mathisfun, 2018).

Nature is a complex matter; however, we must look at the mathematical link it has.  Look at the example of the bee’s honeycomb, bees want to store the most amount of food possible, so they have to think logically about the shapes they use.  Therefore, bees use tessellation.  If we were to place circles together repeatedly, we would have gaps hence why the hexagon is the used shape in honeycomb as replicating this shape next to each other leaves no gaps. Hexagons are one of the most intricate interlocking shapes (Bees and Maths, undated).  This is a prime example of tessellation being used in nature and our ever day surroundings.

Many cultures use this art to form beautiful designs, an example of this would be Islamic art. There are three main principles of Islamic art, this involves calligraphy, arabesque and geometry.  Calligraphy is significant due to the importance of writing within the Islamic faith, the use of writing is used within building designs and decorations.  Geometry is at the heart of Islamic design; the use of shape and patterns cover many surfaces.  The use of the geometric shapes relates to spiritual doings and nature (Hussain, 2009).

I feel that it is of high importance to educate our future pupils with the real-life link of maths to their surroundings.  Mathematics has a fine link to many aspects of our life, including art.  It is essential to make connections to other curricular areas involving mathematics as this is a fundamental principle of mathematics and it is significant through our learning (Ma, 2010).  I therefore believe sharing the creativeness of mathematics and their links will benefit children’s future learning.

References

Bees and Maths (undated) Available at: https://lifethroughamathematicianseyes.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/bees-and-math/(Accessed: 5 November 2018).

How did Tessellation Transform from Method to Art? (2016) Available at: https://www.widewalls.ch/tessellation-mathematics-method-art/(Accessed: 5 November 2018).

Hussain, Z. (2009) Introduction to Islamic art. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/art/art_1.shtml(Accessed: 5 November 2018).

Ma, L. (2010) Knowing and teaching elementary mathematics: teachers’ understanding of fundamental mathematics in China and the United States. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/dundee/detail.action?docID=481154. (Accessed: 5 November 2018).

Maths is Fun (2018) Tessellation.  Available at: https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/tessellation.html(Accessed: 5 November 2018).