Tangrams in STEM?

I used tangrams in the classroom along side Grandfather Tang's Story. I loved watching the students make the animal shapes. I told them the legend of tangrams and how on the way to meet the Emperor the tile fell and broke into 7 pieces. 

I did all that for years and then I learned about the importance of spacial awareness while attending Thinking Math training.  Our trainer gave us the pieces and asked can you take 2 smaller triangles and make a larger triangle? Can you take 2 triangles and make a square? Can you take 2 triangles to make a rhombus? The 2 large triangles make half of a square. Use the other 5 pieces to make a perfect square. 

The value of all this? Using shapes in this manner at early grades contributes to the development of perseverance, perception and visualization. picturing things in space helps handwriting and distinguishing between letters such as "b" and "d." Upper grades may use the square to have students help figure out what fractional part of the square each tangram piece is.

CCE students are in the video making shapes using tangrams. It is not easy for all students but to see them try to reason and manipulate them is telling. It was really eye opening to see the 4-5th graders make the square. One interesting thing I saw was a student place the pieces on top of the 2 large triangles that made half the square. The student moved them around until they fit on top and then flipped them over to make the other half of the square.