Kids were surprised that they can learn about math and space! We used golden ratio calipers to find that proportion in a satellite photo of Hurricane Sandy and a space photo of Spiral Galaxy NGC1232. Participants made a Golden spiral necklace.
Enthusiasm for Math at the Austin Central Library Kids Block Party!
If you ever wondered if families, adults, kids, teens would be interested in some math on a Saturday, this should answer your question. We brought Tessellations, and in particular some designed with Marjorie Rice’s discoveries and we also featured Lewis Carroll’s puzzles, tangrams and cipher codes. MH team: Kyla Kalugdan, Josephine Sheng and Lauren Siegel, and special thanks to our
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Tree Measuring at the Buda Public Library
Michelle, Paola and Kyla headed out to the Buda Public Library Spring Fling April 14 to measure a special tree. Consensus says its 13 feet tall. Participants learned to use a quadrant and landscape measuring tape to set up their calculation. They also made plumb line necklaces. Thanks to the City of Buda and youth librarian Caitlin Foley!
Killeen Brain Blast
We were invited to bring some Math to Killeen Texas on Saturday March 9th and we brought a lot! See the Program guide Michelle made. You can also follow links in the guide to some quickie videos that explain the math activities and models we took with us to Killeen. MathHappens staff for this event included Quan Vuong, Alex Li,
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Pop up Math at Austin’s Central Library
Exhibiting a Globular Map, an “Innovative” Mercator Map (1500s) and a Modern Map to show the way maps changed over time for purposes of navigation. The Globe shows us the true proportions of the continents, and the 3d printed Stereographic shell shows how translating a sphere to a flat surface can cause the kinds of distortions the Mercator map. Ben,
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Austin Museum Day Part 2: Harry Ransom Center
MathHappens was happy to be back at the Harry Ransom Center for Austin Museum Day. Activities for the day were based on the Ransom Center’s Lewis Carroll collection. Our math activities included making your own secretly coded name tag using a cipher key based on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. We had tangrams which could be rearranged to look like the
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Pfun Times at Maker Pfest!
We had a great time at Maker Pfest this past Saturday! The Pflugerville Public Library is a beautiful community space and we were pleased to see so many excited visitors at Maker Pfest. Abdulkarim and Arami, both part of the UTeach Maker program, staffed the event. Abdulkarim talked to visitors about the golden ratio calipers and how this ratio shows
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Little Free Library
What we learned: The Little Free Library is a non profit organization that provides materials to construct a free library for homeowners. The libraries are free and passersby can take or leave books. The organization runs promotions to help engage potential librarians and were interested in a math book donation for Pi Day. MathHappens: We donated 250 copies of Thinking
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