Another activity to demonstrate that topology includes changing an object’s shape without changing its size. I challenged the children to see if they could fit their body through a piece of A4 card. They looked baffled. I asked them what tools they could use. They correctly offered cutting and folding. I showed them this method, which uses one fold and lots of alternate cuts. There were a few false starts but all the children did manage to complete the task, much to their satisfaction. I then challenged them to fit their body through a postcard, using the same method but this time making narrower cuts. Despite their scepticism the children were able to complete this task (with a bit of help at times). The ultimate challenge was to fit their body through the paper equivalent of a bank card. This was really tricky as the cuts have to be so narrow they are prone to snapping. We did have several successes, all showing a lot of persistence. We all had lots of fun exploring the topology of a piece of card.
Tag: topology
Deforming a doughnut into a coffee mug at the Curious Minds Club (St Thomas of Canterbury Primary School, 20 September 2019)
A continuation of our exploration of topology. An explanation of the rules of deformation (no new holes, no filling in holes, no gluing, no tearing), followed by getting out the modelling clay and deforming a torus (or doughnut) into a coffee mug. An extension of this by deforming a two-hole torus into a pair of pants, and a three-hole torus into a vest (after explaining why a vest has three holes).
A new activity to demonstrate that topology includes changing an object’s shape without changing its size. Cutting a hole the size of a 5p in a piece of paper, trying to pass a 2p through this hole, finding this is impossible in 2D space, switching to 3D space by lifting up the piece of paper and introducing height, and finding that the 2p will pass through the hole once the paper is twisted and manipulated.
Introduction to topology at the Curious Minds Club (St Thomas of Canterbury Primary School, 13 September 2019)
The first week of my brand new Curious Minds Club!
An explanation that maths is about more then numbers and sums: it is also about shapes and space. A demonstration of the difference between the two and three dimensions of space. An introduction to topology. An exercise with a piece of rubber (cut out of a balloon) with a circle drawn on it, stretching it into different polygons. An exercise with the upper case letters of the alphabet, categorising them by their number of holes. An explanation of the difference between a hole and an opening, using a pipe cleaner, with the objects being those classical to topology – a doughnut and a coffee mug. An exercise with a bag of objects, with the children categorising them by their number of holes, either 0, 1, 2 or >2.
Games4Life 