Concrete 3D printed manipulatives in geometry learning and problem solving: usefulness of instructional 3D printed tools in the topic of polygons and tilings
Abstract
The purpose of the presented study was to observe the role of concrete 3D printed manipulatives in solving geometry planar problems. 25 elementary school students and 34 secondary school students in the Czech Republic were given tasks on properties of polygons and their applications in tilings in the plane. Our aim was to examine how collaborative activities with concrete manipulatives from 3D printers help students to learn, to support, and to develop students' conceptual understanding of planar objects namely polygons.
The experiment was divided into several phases and the aim was to explore students' success rate in solving geometric tasks with and without concrete manipulatives. The results showed that students knew the polygons but did not have any understanding how to use them in real applications such as tilings.
After experiments students were able to find not only regular and semi-regular tilings but also prove their constructions.