Construction
This list of resources supports the teaching and learning of construction. I always start by discussing Escher's impossible objects. Students are fascinated by the drawings and are impressed that they can re-create the some of the drawings with a little patience and careful construction.
Drawing
This resource contains two packs of SMILE cards containing a number of drawing activities including some requiring students to construct using a ruler, pencil and compass including triangles, angle bisectors, perpendicular bisectors, and drawing Islamic designs.
Escher Impossible Objects
I find that students can recreate the Penrose triangle and the devil's tuning fork with a little care and patience. I follow this up by looking at a selection of Escher's other work.
Constructions
It is always usefiul to put the mathematics being carried out into some context.
This resource from Defence Dynamics looks at the military’s use of constructions.
Students are asked to draw constructions to represent how the military target hostile forces, stressing the importance of accuracy in calculations which consider projected paths. They will need to be able to construct scale drawings, an angle bisector, a perpendicular bisector, a triangle and a variety of loci.
Locus Mystery
I always try to make constructions serve a purpose. To solve this mystery students have to construct right angles, parallel lines and a perpendicular bisector of a line.
Constructions and Loci
I like, from the activity file, the constructing a running track activity. It requires students to think about how they go about constructing the drawing, needs accurate use of a pair of compasses and is set in a context with which most students are familiar.
