Unveiling students’ explorations of tessellations with Scratch through mathematical aesthetics

Abstract

This study investigates sixth-grade students’ explorations of tessellations with Scratch through the mathematical aesthetics. For this purpose, the study analyzed the students’ explorations by considering the roles of mathematical aesthetics identified by Sinclair (2004): generative, evaluative, and motivational role. Six middle-school students were asked to create regular and semi-regular tessellations by using Scratch and interviewed individually about the investigation of tessellations. The findings indicated that the students’ generative aesthetic responses to mathematical tasks were most evident in their explorations with Scratch. The students recognized the aesthetic value of mathematical entities while working on tessellations. They never gave up studying on tessellations with Scratch and did not need any external motivation to complete the tasks. Implications for research and practice for teaching are drawn.

KEYWORDS:

• Mathematical aesthetics
• scratch
• tessellations

Acknowledgements

This study is a part of first author's master's thesis prepared under the supervision of the second and third author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.