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
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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″
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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
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We were inspired by a post on Twitter by Olivier Longuet shown below. The object in the photo is an icosahedron, a 20-sided 3D shape, made out of three golden rectangles with side lengths that obey the golden ratio (1:1.618033…). To make a cardboard version of the icosahedron, print out this document and follow the instructions! You can also make
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This is a fantastic way to layout this problem posted on twitter by Olivier Longuet and pointed out to me by Ralph Pantozzi. The drawing progression is on the right or you can etch the left (blank) onto wood, and add the finished pieces as you figure it out. Our files are here if you want a jpg, svg, Corel
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Here are two fun puzzles you can find in this classic book. The files to make them are right here! (secret: The wood is colored with Bingo stampers) Moscow Flower and Crayfish, Laser cut file types: Corel 2020, Adobe Illustrated, SVG, JPG
You don’t need robots and computers, just a system and apparatus to organize the steps! This model is based on the results alluded too but not completely explained by an Israeli company in the recent NY Times article by David Halbfinger on creative pool testing options. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/21/health/fast-coronavirus-testing-israel.html Trying to come up with one of these is a great activity for
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In 2019, we brought our suite of Navigation Math to New York to share how we relate math to Texas History and the voyage of La Belle which is on exhibit at the Texas State History Museum. Files to make our version of the Parallel Ruler are here. Files to make our version of the Compass Rose are here. Participants
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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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Genaille-Lucas Rulers are pretty cool. They are a clever calculator that you can use to multiply some pretty big numbers. MathHappens summer staff member Anh Nguyen made a colorful set from scratch in Corel Draw that you can download and print on a laser or inkjet printer. Feel free to copy, explore, and use. It’s a great project to try
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