Gibraltar geometry

Take a look at the photos of tiles at a school in Gibraltar. What questions can you ask about them?
Exploring and noticing Working systematically Conjecturing and generalising Visualising and representing Reasoning, convincing and proving
Being curious Being resourceful Being resilient Being collaborative

Problem



Take a look at the picture below, showing some tiles at Bayside Boys' School in Gibraltar.

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Gibraltar Geometry


What mathematical questions occur to you?

Here is a close up of a section of the tiled wall.

Does this help you to answer any of your questions?

Does it prompt any new questions?

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Gibraltar Geometry


Becky is approximately 1.7m tall. She is standing by the tiled wall.

Does this help you to answer any of your questions?

Does it prompt any more questions?

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Gibraltar Geometry


Here are some questions we thought of:

What geometric shapes are there in the tiles?

What angles can you work out?

How many squares are there?

How many eight-pointed stars?

Can you recreate a copy of the tile on plain paper? 

How big are the tiles?

How many rectangular tiles would you need to tile your classroom?

The tiles are an example of a type of pattern commonly found in Islamic Art.