The first project is a custom nametag! For summer 2022 MathHappens Foundation is sponsoring an internship for math majors and others interested in making math more accessible to engage with a makerspace by making math models. We worked with Parker-Dewey, a facilitator of micro internships to find students from all over the US interested in this project. We created a
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Cinco de Mayo! We had a blast!
What a nice event at the George Morales Dove Springs Recreation Center! In partnership with the Austin Public Library we set up some stacking frames for ball pit balls, giant tangrams, provided a flower of life medallion to color, chompers (mathematical origami) and geometry kits to make your own flower of life. Many thanks to Austin Public Library and our
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MathHappens at the Library- Updated!
We’ve sent materials to or provided activities at the LA Public Library, Killeen Public Library, Buda Public Library, Santa Fe Public Library, Austin Central Library and most recently the Orange Public Library and we are going to do more. Libraries are great because they are free, open and available to learners of all ages in the community, and you can
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Take and Make: Puzzle A Day
This puzzle is available to buy various places, but you can also just make your own. We colored the wood with Bingo daubers! MH Intern Quan Nguyen worked out a number of solutions and made the CAD file for this one. Our files are available to use: in AI, SVG and CorelDraw Formats There’s also a handout that can be laminated
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Take and Make: Napier’s Bones Calculator
Napier’s Bones are a manually operated calculator created by John Napier in 1612. This calculator is based on Lattice Multiplication and helps math learners with multiplying large numbers by a single digit number. Math learners! Start identifying multiplication patterns by making your own set of Napier’s Bones! Materials: Napier’s Bones Paper Template: https://tinyurl.com/rh5xdajt Writing utensil (pencil or pen) Popsicle sticks
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Math Backpack kit to go at the Buda Public Library
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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Webinar: Making the Most of Math Connections at your Museum or Historical Site
Elizabeth Lay, Claire Steffen and I had the opportunity to present a webinar through the Texas Historical Commission today. We discussed ways that museums can enhance visitor experiences with math, showed a variety of examples of math activities at museum locations and talked about our process in developing connected activities. Our Presentation Slides are here The Handout Recording Hosted by
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A 119 Year Quest to Understand Tessellating, Convex, Irregular Pentagons
The idea for MathHappens to work with tessellating pentagons originated from intern Jason Gorst’s suggestions for future projects on his final report. A tessellation describes an arrangement of shapes that tiles a plane with no gaps or overlaps.The challenge of finding all possible tessellating pentagons was issued in 1900 by David Hilbert at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris
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Blank Fractals + Vallejo Library kids = mathematical creativity!
We cropped out two more kiddos, but this one in the middle who is too busy working to lookup for photo kind of says it all. What a great note as well. Libraries are a wonderful place to play with some math. Greetings to you both, I hope you’re both doing wonderful. This week we’ve been doing art projects with
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Vallejo Fractal Fun.
This summer the fractal fun just won’t stop! We met Mychal Threets, the Children’s Librarian at the Solano County Library’s Springstowne Branch, when he visited our booth at the Bay Area Makersfaire. Mychal sometimes uses coloring sheets as a fun way to extend the time families spend in the library after his popular StoryTime. He told us he wanted to give
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