Geometry and art

Hello everyone!

Today I want to talk to you about an amazing way to work on geometry: art!

It cannot be denied that art, one way or another, tends to implement geometrical elements. It can be something as simple as lines and points from more complex things as polygons and geometrical bodies. Being like that, it is only common sense to implement geometrical learning through artistic activities. In the first place, we already know that cross-curricular learning is the one as teachers we should aspire, as the truth is everything is connected in the world and therefore learning things as geometry aislares from the rest does not make any sense at all. Secondly, art is an appealing element no matter the object the interest. We must remember that art always have functionally, wether is a more complex or simple one. What is for sure is that art awakes emotions, feelings in us, children included, so working with it for geometrical learning can be really beneficial for their emotional and personal growth in addition to an higher interest in the geometrical knowledge as something positive that is present in such common things as art. Finally, art is based on personal creations, so artistic tasks are based on children's active participation, manipulation of the materials, imagination and creativity's developments and also the use of visual-spatial and intrapersonal intelligences. This way, the geometrical learning is much more than geometry, as it is part of a much complete, durable, built-by-themselves learning.

Here I will mention some key artistic areas that could be useful for geometrical learning and add some videos that could be good resources for teachers to plan their teachings:

• Artistic movements: some of them, such as cubism, is based in the use of geometrical elements to express the reality around us. By working on works that belong to this artistic movements, not only they can learn from the geometry used in its creation, but also can learn transversally about history and important figures such as Picasso.

• Tiles: Spain constructions are mainly decorated by tiles, which usually create mosaics of all types and complexities. By having children work on existing ones and creating some themselves, several concepts can be further comprehended, such as the symmetry present in each tile/tiles, the polygons that conform them, the movements that the forms can suffer to conform the final result or the different types lines that form the pattern. Furthermore, it can be a great object of observation in real life, as they are something that children can easily find around them and interpret, existing the possibility of promoting trips to places for promoting this learning based on reality such as the Alhambra (that is plagued by decorations based on mathematical concepts).

• Origami: a kind of art that consists in creating figures through the folding of pieces of paper. This means that the main basis of these constructions are symmetry, lines, angles and polygons. Therefore, it works on geometry concepts in a really discreet way, as the attention is put in the construction of a determined form. Like this, it constitutes a really enjoyable activity that promotes great engagement and interest in final results, promoting great opportunities of including geometrical learning and abilities in an easy, positive way. 

That was all for today, and I recommend you to research about ways to implement art in your work as teachers as I think it is really worth it. See you next time!