Tessellations

You can possess the power of pattern! All things are connected! Take a piece of cardboard or foam board and draw a grid of nine rectangles. Draw a line across the bottom of the middle rectangle that goes above and below the line (see example). Copy this line along the top of the rectangle. Cut this shape out. You have created a primary cell! Take this shape and place it in the center of a new piece of paper with a light grid of the same size rectangles drawn on it. Trace around the shape. Pick up the shape and fit it like a puzzle piece above your drawing and trace it again. Now pick it up and place it below the drawing and trace it again. Continue to trace around the shape each time to create a pattern like the one shown. Color the shapes in different colors. Turn one thing into another.

Tessellate!

Now that you know the tricks of tessellations, try making an ‘eco tessellation’. An eco tessellation can either combine two things from the natural or two things from the built environment that are connected. Or you can connect something from the built environment to the natural environment, or vice versa! Think about things to combine. Make a list like this:

city country
single house apartment houses

soil worms
water people
fish birds
Experiment with shapes and colors. Think about relationships and improving relationships between things that you know and things that grow.
Eco-Tessellate!!