From: Gail (for Teacher2Teacher Service)
Date: Apr 18, 2008 at 20:56:28
Subject: Re: Polyhedra and Euler's formula

Hi Ashley,

I think at the age you are talking about, early elementary, the reason for
having students look carefully at geometric figures is to help them become
accustomed with observing, and then detailing, in written form and orally,
the characteristics of the solids.  At 8 - 9 years of age I would want my
students to notice how the number of edges, faces and angles related to each
other, but I would not expect them to formalize that understanding with a
formula.  I would want them to be able to talk about how polygons and
polyhedra were alike, and how they were different.  I would want to help them
notice that as the number of faces and edges increases, interesting things
happen to the angles, (easiest to show with regular figures, but you should
not use regular figures exclusively so your students won't make
generalizations that will cause them confusion in later years).

 -Gail, for the T2T service

Post a public discussion message
Ask Teacher2Teacher a new question