1. Comment from the Italian teachers

Since we are partecipating in this project “Math, Art and Real Life with GeoGebra”, Angela Colamaria and I (Norma Lisa Neiman) wanted to start with something simple that could nurture teens’ interest  to the topic  and combine T&LS to their  growing environment:  technologies and games. That’s how we came out with the idea of  TANGRAM. TANGRAM is a Chinese old game and consists in a dissection puzzle “of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap”[1]. The  aim of TANGRAM’s Lab in Mathematics is to foster interest in geometry using  an old Chinese game with an interactive geometry environment (geogebra).   Learning through games encourages and motivates students in an active and fun way.  These activities  develop  their creativity, their concern for investigation and exploration,  their reasoning  and  curiosity to geometrical knowledge. It gives a chance to a deeper understanding in mathematical content and concepts and more interaction between students if working in team. The topics emerging from the use of Tangram  are  Cartesian Coordinate system, deep connection  between algebra and geometry, constructions of points, segments, mid points, lines, polygons, vectors, transformations (especially translations and rotations), congruences and similitudes in polygons and some geogebra scripting. After the construction of the TANGRAM, the students  can focus on the artistic production, keeping in mind the game's rules.