Bug Symmetry

3rd grade took a few days to check out some photographs by Levon Biss. Levon is a commercial photographer who typical takes pictures of athletes for advertisements. He started a side-project and began taking pictures of bugs in his free-time. I love the bugs because of the incredible amounts of detail and his excellent lighting of the subjects. Levon takes around 8,000-10,000 pictures of a single bug, focusing in on tiny sections of the bug while changing the lighting over and over to get rid of shadows. He then takes all these photos of bug parts and jigsaws them together using computer software. Lastly, he prints these out on HUGE posters! 3rd grade loved looking at these itty bitty creatures and their symmetrical bodies!

The main focus was to build on our understanding of symmetry after recently completing our project on Maya Hayuk. The first day was spent making the 3 main body parts. We did this by folding our papers in half and cutting out a shape. This ensured that each body part was symmetrical.

The next two days were spent adding smaller details to the bugs such as legs, wings, antennas, stingers, pinchers, and other small designs. Students had to keep in mind that these additional details also needed to be symmetrical.

I'm so excited by how these turned out and I could hear other classes pointing which ones were their favorites in the hallway!