Look... what a beautiful figure: misconceptions and more in geometry

Abstract

The activities were carried out to a view to verticality and continuity between the first and second cycle of education. Our research group, Diverticalmath, which operates in the provinces of Forlì-Cesena and Ravenna, has been dealing with vertical teaching for a couple of years to make mathematics more fun and loved by students. The purpose was to verify the presence of misconceptions and to highlight, through a laboratory teaching, that geometry does not deal with the position of the figures, but only with their shape, their measurements and their transformations, isometric or not. The students worked in small groups, in cooperative mode, also to foster constructive relationships among the comrades and to increase confidence in their means. Through these activities, we have tried to move from knowledge to know-how and, finally, to the construction of meanings, which then lead to building skills.