Wooden prism scale

The wooden prism scale consists of a series of 10 prisms made of steamed beech wood. The prisms are all identical in colour and with a constant length of 20 cm, while the side section, square, varies from 10 cm to 1 cm. The size of the prisms varies, from the coarse to the fine prism, in width and depth gradually decreasing by 1 cm. Being able to observe and touch the prisms stimulates the tactile-muscular sense, composing the prisms in a scale helps the eye to perceive the dimensions, also in their three-dimensionality. Carrying out this kind of activity helps to understand concretely the concept of large and fine. The prisms, in fact, do not differ in colour in order to highlight the quality of the thickness and the proportion of the dimensions. This material promotes the development of eye-hand coordination, attention and concentration and indirectly prepares the "mathematical mind" by introducing concepts of geometry, volume and area.