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52 Weeks of Math Activities

Week 17: Sierpinski in 3D Building Toys

This week break out your blocks (or whatever building toy you enjoy). We are building a Sierpinski cube (Menger Sponge) or Sierpinski tetrahedron. I would also encourage learners to create their own shape and expand on it to create a self-similar sculpture or fractal (think what each iteration would

fractalkitty

• 2 min read
a kid looking through a toy-built menger sponge
a kid looking through a toy-built menger sponge
My Building partner and our Menger Sponge

This week break out your blocks (or whatever building toy you enjoy). We are building a Sierpinski cube (Menger Sponge) or Sierpinski tetrahedron. I would also encourage learners to create their own shape and expand on it to create a self-similar sculpture or fractal (think what each iteration would look like).

Here are a few options for building:

1.) Use this link for a paper model (good for a short class or quick project).

2.) Use toothpicks and gumdrops, cardboard, paper, aluminum foil or other handy building tools in the house.

3.) Use lego (I try not to show learners pictures of the tool they are going to use. I think it’s important to figure it out and discover.)

hands playing with legos
lego sierpinski pyramid

4.) Try Lux blox – this took us quite a while for the third iteration, but it was fun. We found that for the first three sides we needed to build inward to “figure it out.” My daughter built the last two sides while I build inward. It was a lot of fun.

three different menger cubes
build process of the larger menger cube
two more sides of the menger cube
a woman building the cube
finding that the sides are rather difficult to snap on

5. Goobi toys are great and my kids and I have built many fractals with them as well. Below is the Sierpinski tetrahedron.

goobi toy fractals

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