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5 Scenes from the San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering

Chris NhoEvents

Greetings from the San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering!

On Saturday, March 1, 2025 MathHappens debuted in San Diego. We played non-stop with thousands of visitors at Petco Park from 10 AM to 5 PM! Check out these 5 scenes that we caught on camera.

Scene 1: Photo Op!

After a young boy made a hat out of Geometiles, he asked if he could wear it. Our reply? Of course! His parents were thrilled. They took a photo that captured their child’s brilliance! We love the look on everyones faces.

A mother puts a hat made out of Geometiles on her child (who made it).
The mom claps as the son poses for a photo.
Scene 2: The One-Block Challenge

One child was determined to fill out a Koch fractal frame using only the purple hexagon tiles. Along the way, they asked, “is this going to be possible?” When they succeeded, the table cheered! It sparked a chain reaction. Everyone wanted to explore a similar challenge. We saw versions of this challenge being played throughout the entire day.

A level 3 koch-fractal frame is filled with purple hexagons from the 21st century pattern block set.
A heart frame is filled with pink 30-60-90 triangles from the 21st century pattern block set.
A set of 7 hexagons (arranged in rows of 2-3-2) are each filled with a different pattern block from the 21st century pattern block set. One hexagon uses 3 yellow hexagons and 3 blue rhombuses.
Scene 3: Hands On (and Off) Learning

We handed our Hexagons puzzle to our littlest learners and saw some great facilitation from caregivers. They were helpful, but not too helpful. The young child in the first photo spent 5 minutes rotating the orange hexagon on her own. Kudos to dad for resisting the urge to do it himself!

A father and daughter are working on the hexagon puzzle. The father is pointing to the orange L shaped hexagon as the daughter moves it with her hand.
Two young children are seen working on puzzles.
Scene 4: The Long Game

Lots of kids got hooked by an idea, and we got to spend the next 10 to 20 minutes witnessing their thinking unfold. Spending such long amounts of time with families was lovely — we had the opportunity to see brilliant ideas flourish.

Two girls with big smiles are posing for a photo next to their completed hexagon challenge frame.
A young boy looks at his completed level 3 Koch fractal frame, which has a beautiful radial symmetry. His dad is behind him taking a photo of the work.
A young boy and girl are focused on building with their Geometiles. A large structure made with Geometiles is in the front.
Scene 5: Thanks for Playing!

Thank you to the San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering (s/o Julie Lupo!) for putting on an amazing event for the community. Thank you to Yana Mohanty from Geometiles for helping us at the event. And thank you to everyone who stopped by to play with us!

Yana Mohanty and Chris Nho pose for a photo behind the MathHappens table.
In the foreground is a level 3 Koch fractal frame that is solved many times, each solution is a new layer on top of the previous one. The little girl's hands are in the background.

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