Spiral Activity Pack
Postcards of real world and generated spirals
- FS
- KS1
- KS2
- KS3
- KS4
- FE
- HE
Key Stage suitability • Explanation
| Item Ref # |
List Price |
ATM Member |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Spiral Activity Pack |
vis042 |  |
£3.00 | £2.25 |
Spiral Activity Pack
A pack of 16 cards of Spirals. 6 full colour postcards each a photograph of a real world spiral or helix and 10 of different Logo Drawn spirals.
Also included is a leaflet which discusses Spirals and Helixes, Archimedean Spirals, Logarithmic Spirals and Fermat Spirals.
To be accurate the term spiral refers to the plane curve, with the helix being the 3-dimensional form of the curve that is to be seen in the natural and man-made world.
A classroom display of both natural and man-made examples of spirals and helixes provides a valuable resource and some interesting challenges for mathematical starting points.
Both pictures and the real objects can be used.
There is something extremely aesthetically pleasing about spirals. As Thomas Aquinas wrote in the 13th century "The senses delight in things truly proportional" and without doubt the spiral has an order and form that appeals artists and mathematicians alike. The natural world is full of exciting and wonderful examples of spirals if we take the time to look around. Watch the water as it disappears down a drain or a whirlwind as it swirls through the air. Look at pictures of spiral galaxies, search the garden for a spiders web or peer closely at fir cones, sunflower heads and plant growth up a stem. Study the shells of snails, periwinkles and whelks, or the horns of rams, goats, and antelopes for some obvious types of spiral and, of course, find one of the most beautiful examples of all, the nautilus shell.
