Draft: this lesson was written with AI help and has not yet been read by a human editor.
1 What your class asks
This lesson asks you to find and describe the elements and operations that repeat in patterns, and to create patterns and show them in different ways: with shapes, numbers and tables. The museum offers one record on girih, which builds stars and polygons from interlacing bands and rests on girih tiles; the rules, tables and extensions are the class's own work. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- C1.1 identify and describe repeating elements and operations in a variety of patterns, including patterns found in real-life contexts
- C1.2 create and translate patterns that have repeating elements, movements, or operations using various representations, including shapes, numbers, and tables of values
2 The lesson
What repeats, and what changes?
Look at a pattern of stars and polygons. Point to the part that comes back. Does it come back in the same place, or somewhere else?
How can you show the same pattern another way?
Draw the pattern with shapes, then write it with numbers or in a table. Does each way show the same repeat?
Go deeper
See where one kind of ornament turns up. The Encyclopaedia of Islam's article on the arabesque is illustrated with a motif from the mosque of Amr at Fustat, a Qur'an manuscript made in Granada, Egyptian wood carving, a faience mosaic in a tomb at Konya, and a Persian stucco tile 2 3. The article says the ornament is not tied to one material 4.
Think about it
The same kind of ornament appears in wood, in stucco, in tile and in a book. If you wanted to find out what stays the same when it moves from one material to another, what would you look for, and why?
Into the museum
- The arabesque: the article's pictures, and where each one comes from.
- The mosque of Amr at Fustat: one of the places the article's pictures come from.
- Girih: geometric patterns of stars and polygons.
Try this
Read the record on girih. Choose a star you can draw, draw three repeats of it, and make a small table that counts the points at each step.
3 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Girih have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
Stars from interlacing bands. Girih are Islamic geometric strapwork that builds stars and polygons from interlacing bands. They were widespread in Seljuk and Safavid architecture and rest on girih tiles. Could you build a star from a few shapes that repeat?
I can now
Notes
- 1. Ontario Ministry of Education, The Ontario Curriculum: Mathematics
- 2. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes, vol. 1 p. 584
- 3. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes, vol. 1 p. 585
- 4. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes, vol. 1 p. 586