Making a geoboard and exploring geometry

Aim To make a geoboard and verify properties of geometrical shapes on it.

IntroductionA geoboard is a device often used to explore basic concepts in plane geometry such as perimeter, area or the characteristics of geometrical figures.It was invented and popularized by Egyptian mathematician Caleb Gattegno in the 1950's

Material Required

•A wooden board•A white chart paper•Fevicol•Sketch pen•Nails•Hammer•Rubber bands

Procedure

Step 1- Take a wooden board of size 12inches x 12inches

Step 2- Take a white sheet of paper and cover one side of the board with it.
Step 3-Now, with a sketch pen, draw 11 lines horizontally (parallel to length) and 11 lines vertically (parallel to breadth) leaving a gap of 1 inch between every line
After completing step 3, the board will look like this
Step 4-Now,hammer the nails on the points where vertical and horizontal lines intersect each other. Now the geoboard is ready.
ExperimentTake a rubber band and stretch it along 6 horizontal and 4 vertical nails, so as to form a rectangle of size 5in.x3in.Now calculate the number of squares(1inchx1inch), inside the rectangular figure. The number of squares inside the rectangular figure i.e. 15 is equal to area of that rectangle.ProofArea of rectangle= length x breadthArea of rectangle= 5 x 3 sq.inchesArea of the rectangle= 15 sq.inches
UtilityIt can be used to calculate areas of regular and irregular shapes.