Looking for the good shape in the Poly-Universe material

Abstract

This communication reports a set of activities carried out with a three-year-old male child in residential care, using the Poly-Universe material. This material involves sets of 24 pieces of geometric shapes and basic colours (square, circle and triangle), which allow puzzle-like constructions, transforming into a colourful geometric skill development game based on the symmetry of scale change, created by the artist János Szasz Saxon. In cooperation with the child, the educator made the material available, introducing circles, then squares and finally triangles, letting the child explore the material, which led to the construction of creative patterns and playful solutions, associated with other objects (eg the car track and the box to be used as a garage). Through participant observation, it was possible to record, in addition to the knowledge of geometric shapes and colours, through their naming, the development of curiosity, motivation, attention and visual perception. It was registered the placement of series, based on pieces of the same shape, geometric and enlarged forms of a wider set. In this way, the child’s curiosity and desire to learn gave way to intentional processes of exploring the material and understanding different mathematical concepts. It was possible to observe a gradual evolution in terms of material handling, showing an increasing willingness to make/discover new connections. In an autonomous way, he sorted the pieces by colour, created imaginary shapes or shapes that he could play with, put together equal sizes and was able to create new geometric figures.

The interdisciplinary implementation of poly-universe to promote computational thinking: Teaching examples from biological, physical, and digital education in Austrian secondary schools

“…Moreover, besides the implementation in different school subjects, the game PolyUni can also be used within different age groups: from kindergarten ( De Vasconcelos Martins et al, 2022 ) up to secondary school ( Saxon, 2018 ; Saxon and Stettner, 2019 ). In a 2022 study, the Poly-Universe tiles were used even in Residential Care.…”

“…The participants liked the game, because of the colorful elements, simplicity, and universality. The authors even claimed that PolyUni has the possibility to promote social and sensorimotor skills, spatial vision, and algorithmic thinking ( De Vasconcelos Martins et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Due to the game’s uniqueness and possibility to promote CT als an innovative educational tool ( Saxon, 2018 ; De Vasconcelos Martins et al, 2022 ), this article aims to show that teachers can utilize the game in other subjects, such as biology (B), digital education (DGE), and physical education (PE). Therefore, three workshop examples, and accompanying teaching and learning materials for B, PE, and DGE were developed by the authors or adapted from existing examples of the “PUSE Methodology.…”