Geometry Transformations Art Project – Handout

How algorithmic thinking can create visual art

(borrowed from http://pchsmath2h.weebly.com)

Materials

• Enough copies of the letters G, E, M, and R to give each student just one of the letters.
• Enough copies of the letters O, T, and Y to give to struggling students or early finishers.
• Boxes of crayons, at least one per group.
• Black Sharpie pens or similar pens if students are to trace their art for display.

Purpose

This activity is meant to follow and review ALL the transformations. Students will perform translations,
rotations, reflections, and dilations on a single letter. Students will all perform the same transformations
on the letters, so it works best to have students seated in groups of 4.

Activity Overview

Give each group of 4 the letters: G, E, M, and R. Allow each student in the group to choose which letter
they will work on. Give each student a copy of the directions (they are printed two to a page, so each
student only needs a half sheet). Allow students to work together to understand the directions and
perform each transformation on their own paper. Students should be able to finish the majority of the
work in one period. (Note: The G is the most challenging letter)

As students finish coloring, have them trace each image with a black marker if desired (they just look
better this way if you hang them up.) Also, offer early finishers extra credit for completing a second
letter: O, T, and Y. These are the easier letters and once students have completed the first letter, this
second letter takes less than half the time for most students. You might even want to let students finish
their second letter at home for extra credit. I have also included a copy of a “blank” for students who
want to do a different letter, such as the first letter of their name, or the letters of your name for extra
credit.

Hang the best of the letters (or all of them) up to spell the word “Geometry” on the wall.
Directions

1) Follow the composition of transformations for your letter:

a. Reflect in the line: y = 8
b. Translate: (x, y) → (x + 13, y + 4)
c. Reflect in the line: y = –x + 3
d. Rotate: 90°
e. Dilate from the origin: k = 3
2) Color each image a different color.
3) Color each quadrant a different color (not the same color as the
image or images of the letter in it.)

1) Follow the composition of transformations for your letter:

a. Reflect in the line: y = 8
b. Translate: (x, y) → (x + 13, y + 4)
c. Reflect in the line: y = –x + 3
d. Rotate: 90°
e. Dilate from the origin: k = 3
2) Color each image a different color.
3) Color each quadrant a different color (not the same color as the
image or images of the letter in it.)
This lesson will be used as a review activity to bring closure to the transformations unit. Students will
have been practicing translations, reflections, rotations, and dilations up to this point. One of the goals is
to have students differentiate between the four different transformations, since some students tend to
confuse rotations with reflections. This activity will allow students to perform each transformation on a
letter on the same piece of paper. This will be helpful so that they can then label the transformation
being applied and in turn should diminish the chances of confusing the transformations.

The ISTE standards that will be addressed to the students will mostly be:

5c – Students break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive
models to understand complex systems or facilitate problem-solving.

5d – Students understand how automation works and use algorithmic thinking to develop a sequence of
steps to create and test automated solutions.

For the first ISTE standard listed, students will be breaking down the problem into either reflections,
rotations, translations, or dilations, and will extract key information to facilitate problem solving. As for
the second ISTE standard listed, students will be thinking algorithmically when applying the correct
transformation. Students will think about and decide what is actually happening to the pre-image before
they plot it on the coordinate plane.