MathHappens at Austin Nature and Science Center Museum Day 2021

Josephine ShengCommunity Partnerships, Events, History Connections, Intern Experience, Making Math, Nature & Science Center, We think math is fun!Leave a Comment

This year at Austin Nature and Science Centers Museum Day, MathHappens hosted activities relating to Voronoi diagrams and Fibonacci numbers. Thank you to Austin Nature and Science Center staff for helping us prepare for this event and for everyone that came out to Museum Day! Steph Lee and Rashell Soria led the activities at our Voronoi Diagram table. Visitors got to

MathHappens at Neill-Cochran House Museum Day 2021

Josephine ShengCommunity Partnerships, Events, History Connections, Intern Experience, Making Math, Museum, Ways to like math, We think math is fun!Leave a Comment

At Austin Museum Day 2021, MathHappens hosted a suite of activities at the Pythagorean theorem tables led by Naila Najiyeva, Laila Cook, Quan Nguyen, and Rashell Soria. Visitors were able to see the Pythagorean Theorem Proof and the Sum of Odd Numbers proof. At the tables, they also saw the Penrose stairs and a modern day application of it.  

FAB16 Conference: Making and Math

Josephine ShengConference Presentations, Intern Experience, Making Math, Sharing Ideas, We think math is fun!, Zoom FriendlyLeave a Comment

Interns Saurav Gandhi and Anh Nguyen co-presented the “Making and Math” session at the FAB16 Conference. They presented several of the math models we have constructed over the years including Koch Fractals, Mini Unit Circles, and Curve Stitching.  Participants were shown how they can get creative with topics in Math by participating in making a Fractal Collage (see image gallery

Making Math Makes Sense

Lauren SiegelConference Presentations, Making Math, Sharing Ideas, Sponsoring Mathematics Projects, Ways to like mathLeave a Comment

We’ve said it before and we said it again at the Connected Learning Summit in July.  this was a great month of programs.  You can see some of the keynote speakers as well as find our Ignite talk among some other excellent 5 minute presentations (2nd session, 2nd talk) in their post here. Highlights From the 2021 Connected Learning Summit

Pooled Testing At Camp with STEM Santa FE

Lauren SiegelCommunity Partnerships, Events, History Connections, Making Math, Sharing Ideas, Sponsoring Mathematics Projects, We think math is fun!Leave a Comment

This post is the sequence of instruction with work examples from a STEM Santa FE Camp held on January 28, 2021.  The students are 7th and 8th graders enrolled in a summer program following a year of primarily on-line instruction. Lesson Plan  History of Pooled Testing – Demo of Simple Pooling Order a Pooled Test Demo Kit (same as in

Geometric Shapes and Tools with Campers at STEM Santa FE

Lauren SiegelMaking Math, Take and Make, Ways to like math, We think math is fun!Leave a Comment

We took a “Maker” approach at STEM SantaFe’s camp this week.  Students experimented with different ways to make a moveable joint using a variety of materials:  balloon pieces, tin foil, brads, rubber band and even the wax paper bag the materials came in. Creative ideas included bending the brads to make tension, combining brads with balloons.  We also made 3

Voronoi at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Josephine ShengCommunity Partnerships, Intern Experience, Making Math, Parks & Recreation, Sharing Ideas, Sponsoring Mathematics Projects, We think math is fun!Leave a Comment

We’ve been working closely with the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in creating activities and models to accompany the Beehive they have on site. There are a lot a mathematical concepts that can be taught in relation to the way beehives are constructed such as tessellations, Voronoi diagrams, area, and perimeter. We can’t wait to see how they use these activities and

UTeach Conference 2021 – Leveling the Playing Field: Creating Equity in Mathematics

Josephine ShengConference Presentations, History Connections, Making Math, Sharing Ideas, Teacher Support & Training, We think math is fun!Leave a Comment

MathHappens had the opportunity to present at the 2021 UTeach STEM Educators Conference. The theme for this year was Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in STEM Education. Paola and Josephine led our session on “Leveling the Playing Field: Creating Equity in Mathematics.” Below are some images of our slides. If you would like to view our entire presentation, here are our

Geometry Kit for Connected Learning Session/Rosenthal Prize Update

Lauren SiegelMaking Math, Math at Home, Take and Make, Ways to like math, We think math is fun!, Zoom Friendly1 Comment

MoMath has posted the Rosenthal Prize Lessons!  Check out ours called Building a Tool to Deepen Understanding here.  It has lots of great photos. We are very excited to present this activity as part of our presentation at Connected Learning Summit.  It has potential for a lot of great Maker elements.  You can start from scratch with two dots 2″

Take and Make – Voronoi Flipbook

Paola GarciaMaking Math, Math at Home, Sharing Ideas, Take and Make, Ways to like math, We think math is fun!, Zoom FriendlyLeave a Comment

After talking with Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, we began searching for new ideas to interact with Voronoi Diagrams. During our pre-pandemic presentations and events we allowed people to interact with a Voronoi simulation that had been posted on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Voronoi_growth_euclidean.gif While brainstorming we decided to buy a flipbook kit and test out what we could do with them. One of our