Young children's spontaneous use of isometric and non-isometric symmetries: a study regarding their unprompted depictions of plant life.

Autor: Villarroel, José Domingo1 (AUTHOR) txomin.villarroel@ehu.eus, Merino, Maria2 (AUTHOR), Antón, Alvaro1 (AUTHOR)
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Biological Education (Taylor & Francis Ltd). Nov2023, Vol. 57 Issue 5, p971-985. 15p.
Abstrakt: Previous research indicates that young children, as young as preschoolers, spontaneously draw dihedral and cyclic symmetries in their representations of the natural world. This is an intriguing find because at this age children have barely had their first contact with formal geometry and, therefore, one would not expect to find a use of symmetries as profuse as the ones that previous research accounts for in their depictions. In keeping with this line of research, the present study examines the drawings that 190 children aged between 4 and 7 freely completed to express their understanding of the plant world. The study aims to analyse the occurrence and complexity of motifs displaying cyclic and dihedral symmetries. Moreover, the study goes beyond prior studies and also posits to explore the occurrence and complexity of motifs showing frieze patterns as well as homothety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Databáze: GreenFILE