Rotational symmetry- synchronised swimming

Further to our post “Symmetry the fun way: B-boy dancing“, Mr Williams suggested a great idea of using synchronised swimming as inspiration for a lesson about rotational symmetry.

Here is the Japanese Team in full flow at the Sydney Olympics:

There is an excellent routine at about 2 mins into the video which has some fantastic rotational symmetry in it. You could freeze frame the video here and use it to demonstrate the concept.

There are endless possibilities you could go on with from here: could they design their own synchronised swimming pattern/ routine and draw it or act it out on land, get them in the pool for a cross-curricular link if you have one or could they do some research for a homework to find as many pictures showing rotational symmetry in sports and other applications as they can? Great fun.

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Symmetry the fun way: B-boy dancing!

Got to do a lesson about line symmetry and looking for inspiration? Check out this Youtube video of Korean B-boy dancers doing a ‘mirror dance’:

You could use this as inspiration for the pupils and then get them creating their own symmetrical dance routines. This is plane symmetry rather than line symmetry but the concept should be transferable. You could even get the audience to state where the planes of symmetry are in the dance routines they are watching and also encourage the dancers to change where the plane of symmetry is during their routines. The possibilities are endless!

A great teaching strategy, particularly for the kinaesthetic learners.

A big thanks to Vicky for this great idea.

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