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Sponge Sections

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Paper Folding - Models of the Platonic Solids

A description of how to make the five Platonic solids out of paper.

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Plaiting and Braiding

This article for students gives some instructions about how to make some different braids.

3 Sets of Cubes, 2 Surfaces

Stage: 2 Challenge Level: Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3 Challenge Level:3

Why do this problem?

This activity is specially designed for the highest-attaining pupils that you ever come across. It acts as a further extension to Two on Five. It's an activity that is intended to give opportunities for those pupils to explore deeply using their intuition and flair in the area of spatial awareness, also with an opportunity to create a system for solving such problems.

Possible approach

As this is designed for the highest attaining, it might be presented as on the website or in a one-to-one situation, encouraging discussion between adult and pupil. The pupils may need access to a computer program for drawing solutions.

Key questions

Tell me about what you have found.
Can you describe the ways that you arrived at these shape arrangements?
How did you construct these on the computer?

The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice. More information on many of our other activities can be found here.
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NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.