Article: Tessellation power. (teaching tessellations)

A combined math-art project produces some cool clothes

MATH AND ART combine in Ruth Colton's fourth-grade class at Encinal Elementary School in Atherton, California, when she teaches students about tessellations--identical geometric shapes that interlock in mosaiclike patterns. Artist M. C. Escher was famous for his intricate tessellated designs, but the art can be as simple as a grid of squares.

The young cyclists above are wearing the results of the classroom lesson: T-shirts embellished with their own tessellated designs. The idea is to make a single shape, trace it repeatedly on paper, color it with fabric crayons, then transfer the colored design to a ...

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