This is a great example where mathematicians applied some creative thinking to solve a very real world problem. It is Abraham Wald’s Survivorship Bias problem. To help explain the sequence of concepts that lead to his insight, we made some wooden planes to help visualize the problem, and the solution. We start out thinking about the planes that come back
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THE PARABLE OF THE LIFE PRESERVER EXPERIMENT by Phil Siegel There once was a Navy in a country we all know. One of its Admirals had a brilliant idea. If one life preserver works well and saves lives maybe two will work better. So they ran an experiment by throwing sailors into the water and tossing them two life preservers…one
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MathHappens Foundation and STEM Santa Fe partnered together to host a week’s worth of camp sessions for a group of 27 students from March 15-19. Camp sessions were led by MathHappens staff, Lauren Siegel, Josephine Sheng, Elizabeth Wrightsman, Anh Nguyen and Viyang Shah and group discussions were led by a group of facilitators including Naila Hajiyeva, and Quan Nguyen who
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These are cardstock designs, so if you laser cut the pieces they will all stay attached to each other. SVG of Cardstock versions Square to Triangle Square to Hexagon SVG of straight cut lines (square/hexagon is a the parallelogram) And if you are interested, here’s how you make the pieces. Triangle to Square: This transformation was made based on Ernest
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George Washington Carver Museum is hosting Black History Month Kid’s Day on Saturday, March 27th, 2021. They will be hosting the event live via Zoom sessions with special guests and activities. This year’s theme is the Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity. You can RSVP for the event here. MathHappens interns, Viyang Shah and Anh Nguyen, worked together to create
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The Buda Public Library is located right in City Hall MathHappens Foundation sponsored math kits to take home and keep as well as, and we also developed 5 themed kits to check out and return which will all debut at the Math All Around Us event. Professor Jennifer Austin from University of Texas is going to present live and answer
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Options for Adding Mathematics connections: Labels on exhibits * Live demonstrations* Make and Take activities * Field Trip programs * Family Activity Area ideas * sculptures and installations. Resource List for Web and in person Mathematics Web and in person: Some organizations who work with museums and in public arenas to provide Mathematics Performances, Events and Experiences. Email addresses will
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Is the word “Discovery” found in the name of your museum? …or in your mission statement? Click here to play this video (0:09). A bit of math exploration & play can be so surprising. Rewarding. It’s fun to see nature and art in new ways… to make new connections. No time pressure. No paper and pencils… our eyes open to
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If you are a fan of museums, then you have seen something like this object before… probably dozens of times. This impressive artifact is a nocturnal from La Belle and it can be used to tell time at night by the positions of the stars. As historic artifacts and symbols of exploration and discovery, navigation tools like this one spark
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We love this video! When we partner with a museum or nature center we build the possibilities together. Some activities are “pop-ups.” Others are long lasting, like this sunclock. Some activities are outside… some are inside. “Gnomon” < Do you know this word? Megan uses it in the video. See the how this sunclock was built and how it’s
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