Quadrilateral Pieces: A Geometry Puzzle

The puzzle consists of four pieces, each a congruent quadrilateral with blue and green sides. Students can engage in authentic problem solving with right, acute and obtuse angles. They can explore flips, turns, rotations, supplementary angles and symmetry as they construct several different kinds of quadrilaterals. They will explore the properties of quadrilaterals including the trapezoid, rectangle, parallelogram, and square as they evaluate their own created solutions. Students can develop spatial sense informally as they use the pieces to create a variety of designs using the blue and green sides of the puzzle pieces. Students can communicate their designs using geometric terms so that other students can try to recreate their designs. In the process, vocabulary related to geometry can be learned and reinforced through frequent use.