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Soccer and Shapes
Wedgwood Elementary School Fifth-Graders Learn about Geometric Shapes through Creation of Soccer Balls
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP – In math terms, a soccer ball is known as a truncated icosahedron and is made of 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons. Wedgwood Elementary School fifth-grade students in Mrs. Donna McGough and Mr. Domenick Renzi's math classes recently extended their study of geometric shapes by constructing soccer balls.
First, the students created regular pentagons and hexagons. Then, they colored and cut the geometric shapes. Once the students had all of their shapes ready, they began to assemble the soccer balls by securing the shapes with masking tape. Students began to see that as the pentagons and hexagons were put together, a sphere started to take shape. Soon, the soccer balls were complete.
- WTPS -