Now watch an extended video excerpt (duration 2:47) at left of the class you have just seen as they continue to work on the Building Viewpoints activity.

Representing the different views of a three-dimensional "building" with a two-dimensional drawing enables students to use a variety of modalities, from visual to tactile, to identify the characteristics of the building. The problem encourages students to see relationships between the views of the building that are more obvious from the representation than from the physical model. Since we live in a three-dimensional world, giving students opportunities to work with three-dimensional models and to explore their characteristics is an important aspect of studying geometry and spatial visualization in the middle grades.

After you have completed the activity and watched the video segment, reflect on the following questions (considering at least two of the five):

• How do students represent their thinking to complete the task of recording each view of the building?
• The building mat is marked front, back, left, and right. How is this helpful to students who are working to record their observations?
• Are there other ways in which the building mat can help students clarify their thinking when they do not understand a question?
• How do Ms. Hardaway's questions help students draw conclusions from their representations?
• How might the drawings help students who were initially having difficulty with building the figure?

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