Copying, drawing, cutting, shaping,coloring, etc. is a natural outgrowth of working with crystals and a nice diversion from the routine academic work. It will re-inforce some of the new crystal’s concepts in a fun way. There is something engrossing about these geometrical forms. Hang them up in the room; they make a great attraction. The kids will love to take them home. You can quiz them on names of forms, the number of sides( the names will give them a clue, for example, the octahedron, like the octopus, has eight side), and some crystals that may take that form.
The patterns in this section, and many others, can be found in many general books on crystals. There is a very beautiful book of Escher’s drawings, Kaleidiocycles( see bibliography), that has very beautiful patterns with step-by-step instructions on making them. The reader is encouraged to pursue this further, if he finds his class response positively to this. This section is a small sample of the kinds of shapes available in this area. Have fun!
This figure combines a hexagonl prism with 2 hexagonal pyramids.
(figure available in print form)
This shape resembles the large quartz crystal.
(figure available in print form)
A right triangular prism
(figure available in print form)
You can make a right triangular prism by folding up this figure.
This prism has a triangular base and its side are at right angles to the base
(figure available in print form)
You can cut and fold up this shape to make a right hexagonal prism. This is made from 6 rectangles and two hexagrams. The beryl crystal has the shape of a right hexagonal prism.
(figure available in print form)
From this shape we make the regular dodecahedron. The dodecheron has 12 sides.
You cn easily make this figure by drawing one regular pentagon and carefully tracing the others from it on paper. Paste the final figure on cardboard.
(figure available in print form)
This shape is a regular tetrahedron with its 4 corners cut off equally.
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This shpe will give you an octahedron. Draw this shape then cut, crease and fold to form the three dimensional solid.
(figure available in print form)
From this figure we can malke a cube.
