The Mathomat V3 template, explorer pack includes a Mathomat version 3 geometry template with a 128-page illustrated student manual. The student manual has an inspiring collection of action based illustrated activities for Mathomat. These create interesting contexts that allow students to make sense of geometry investigations more easily.

The Mathomat V3 geometry template

The Mathomat V3 template is the same shape as Mathomat V2 but is 22% larger in area. It has all the same great selection of shapes, arranged in a user-friendly hierarchical pattern around its central protractor that you would expect in a Mathomat. The larger Mathomat V3 template includes many great new features, including:

Tisdell’s geometry tool

Professor Tisdell’s new geometry tool (TGT) in the Mathomat V3 template can create all the geometric constructions in the school curricula by using a single radius with a defined centre for rapid and accurate placement. This accurate, safe, and efficient way to draw geometric constructions is demonstrated in Chris’s geometric construction video series, and in the paper Beyond the Compass by Chris and David Bee Olmedo. . The physical nature of the TGT keeps students in contact with geometry in a physical sense while encouraging abstract thinking in terms of the points, lines, and arcs inherent in the tool and its use.

The TGT is positioned close to the straight edge on the left side of the Mathomat template for maximum coordination between both while drawing. As pointed out in David and Chris’s paper, the integration of the straight edge and the TGT in Mathomat reduces the complexity and time involved in creating geometric constructions in comparison with the use of a compass and straight edge.

Larger shapes to draw with

In the Mathomat V3 template the side length of the larger group of polygons has been increased to 20mm (from 15mm in the Mathomat V2 template). This allows for drawing useful sized nets to construct polyhedra and other 3-D shapes and for the drawing of larger 2-D patterns such as tessellation designs. It is easier for students to see the geometric structure of these larger shapes. 

A useful feature of the Mathomat V3 template is that its larger regular polygons now include a full set of pattern block shapes, which can be used in 2-D drawings to explore the many geometric designs that both primary and secondary schools have developed for these widely used concrete materials.

New geometry tools in Mathomat V3

The new Mathomat V3 includes three new tools that expand its creative potential:

• The tangram tool. Can be used to construct the three different sized triangles needed to complete the ancient Chinese tangram puzzle. These are complemented by other matching tangram shapes in the Mathomat V3.
• The regular polygon expansion scale. Will construct extra-large (50mm sided) regular polygons from similar shapes in Mathomat.
• The arc builder scale. Will create extra-large arcs and circles.

The usual great range of Mathomat shapes and scales

The Mathomat V3 template has all the great range of shape stencils such as useful graduated circles, ellipses, regular polygons, quadrilaterals, and graphing curves that you would expect. Mathomat V3 also has the same rich collection of number lines as before, such as a linear radian scale, millimetre, and centimetre scale and 1:20,000 street directory scale.as well as isometric and parallel lines for technical drawing.

Explorer student manual 

The new 128-page illustrated student manual, Explorer version, has an inspiring range of action baed illustrated activities. These create interesting contexts that allow students to make sense of geometry investigations more easily. In this revised version, there is.

• a new section on construction techniques for the Platonic and Archimedean solids using Mathomat V3. This section is full of action photography and detailed construction plans. Supported by beautiful, richly photographed, models, work in progress shots and illustrated nets at the Explorer manual support section. Click here
• A new angles section, which sends the Mathomat kids out to connect with real world angles, learning to measure and draw them mathematically even where they are difficult to see. The angles section concludes by learning to operate a Mathomat protractor in just one single step.
• The Mathomat kids use the new pattern block shapes in the Mathomat template to explore double sized dodecagon patterns.
• There are beautiful examples of tangram and magic egg puzzles to explore. These give students the satisfaction of creating their own designs as well as introducing them to the new tangram tool and arc builder tools in Mathomat.
• Illustrated activities in the Explorer manual introduce students to the use of the TGT in Mathomat for geometric constructions.
• In the revised diary section of the Explorer manual students learn to use the TGT in Mathomat as a “Platonic protractor”. What we mean by this is that the design of the TGT, which reduces geometry to its basic elements of arc, line and point works well as the sort of protractor that Plato would have approved of. The Mathomat kids use to it understand angle as a ratio of arc lengths in a circle. This gives them a more robust understanding of angle in preparation for trigonometry and the concept of radians at later years.