Great websites for exploring 3D shapes
Posted by rosiemacalpine on February 20, 2009
Recently I posted on Google Sketchup, and how this program could be used to explore the properties of 3D shapes with primary or secondary students. Today’s post focuses on websites that work well on an IWB and provide an introduction to 3D shapes for primary students. They are listed in order of difficulty for students, starting with easy.
This one has been around for a while but is still extremely popular. It features half buried or obscured shapes which need to be matched with their name. By clicking on the name, students can also listen to the correct pronunciation of the word. And the images used are unusual and intriguing – a nice change from the usual primary colour scheme.
2. 3D shapes
This flash resource from Birmingham Learning Grid is the best one I’ve seen for the concept. It starts with an comparison of 1, 2 and 3D (which increased my understanding of the concept too!) and then provides 11 different 3D shapes that you can take a closer look at – not just the usual 4 or 5 shapes. When you click on each shape, you get a written description of the shape, the net and a 3D model that you can rotate to view.
There’s two activities on this site that I find particularly useful with teaching 3D shapes. Both of the them look at different ways of viewing 3D models (particularly those constructed from cubes). In both activities, you can grab the pen shape with your finger or pen, and rotate it until it matches the silhouette view shown on the right hand side. The website itself is not very clear to use, but these activities are very good.