Shapes and Nets - What is it?

Draw and colour 2D and 3D shapes with just a couple of mouse clicks - cuboids, cones, cylinders, prisms.

Learn the names of 2D shapes and simple 3D solids.

Rotate 3D shapes and see how they look from different angles.

See how 3D shapes can flatten out into nets.

Learn and experience the mathematics of simple shapes.

Design and make boxes for packaging.

Print out the nets of the shapes and construct real models.

Activities include:

Shape investigation

Tessellation


Shape investigation top

	Screen showing 3D solid shapes; cube, cuboid, cylinder cone and sphere. All the shapes are dragged on to the screen from a shapes window.
Shape investigation top
	Here is an example of 2D shapes; octagon, hexagon, square and circle were gragged on to the screen from the shapes window and mapped with funny faces.
Shape investigation top
	The same shapes are found in all walks of life, here the square, circle and octagon are mapped with familiar road signs.
Shape investigation top
	Polygons A polygon is a shape whose sides are all straight. There regular polygons which have equal sides and angles, a regular pentagon for example, and irregular polygons which don't have equal sides. Shapes and Nets provides a good library of polygon shapes including different triangles, quadrilaterals, prisms, pyramids, circle shapes and platonic shapes. They can all be dragged on to the screen, moved around, rotated, translated, joined together and coloured.
Tessellation top
	Tessellation Tessellate means to arrange shapes into a mosaic pattern. A tessellation is created when a shape is duplicated and placed on a flat sheet over and over again so that there are no gaps and that all the shapes make up just one shape. Regular Tessellation A regular tessellation means a tessellation made up of congruent, or same size and shape, or regular polygons. A regular polygon has 3 or 4 or more sides and angles, all equal.
Tessellation top
	Irregular Tessellation An irregular tessellation is constructed from a set of irregular polygons, ones which do not have equal angles and sides. These fish shapes are irregular polygons, they're quite complicated looking shapes but they can be rotated and moved and joined together to form an irregular tessellation. Drag the fish shapes on to the screen, rotate and move them to make a fantastic tessellation. There are only four shapes here but one could keep on adding them to make a large tessellation. There is a Tessellating Fish tutorial in the manual which demonstrates how to make a tessellating pattern from the pre-made shapes provided in Shapes & Nets.
Packaging top
	A triangular prism shape is mapped with a image to create a confectionary package. The shape can be rotated in different planes so that images can be placed on to the appropriate face.
Packaging top
	This image shows the nets of a triangular prism shape. The prism was mapped with the image of confectionary bar and then printed out to make the packaging. You can see why we called the program Shapes & Nets.
Packaging top
	Here is a 3D Cylinder shape which has been mapped with an image to make a drinks can.
top
	The shape is flattened out to show the net which can be printed out and built. But we wouldn't recommend filling it with real drink!
Platonic solids top
	Platonic solid shapes are everywhere, how about these dice!
3D Street Scene top
	It's surprising what you can do with ordinary shapes. Shapes & Nets contains a library of simple shapes including cubes and pyramid shapes which have been pre-drawn with door and windows and other images to make a small town. All the nets of the shapes in the town, or street, can be displayed and printed out to make a model town.
Street Plan top
	Here's a plan view of a street scene. In Shapes & Nets you can design the street, move all the bits around, look at the plan or bird's eye view, the 3D view and then build a paper model of your creation.
Solar system top
	Here's a novel use of spheres inside Shapes & Nets. One can drag spheres on to the screen, change their size and map different images on to them to make some of the planets in our solar system

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