See you at MoMath!

J JEvents, MuseumLeave a Comment

Join us a fun Family Friday, 10 January 2020 at the National Museum of Mathematics in New York City! Pentagonal Pursuit: Solving a Century-Old Tiling Problem — Explore the many types of tessellating tiles and decorate your favorites. Take away stories, art and patterns to inspire more discovery at home. Register now to save your spot! Follow us on Instagram

A 119 Year Quest to Understand Tessellating, Convex, Irregular Pentagons

Michelle TatCommunity Partnerships, Conference Presentations, Library, Museum, Nature & Science Center, Parks & Recreation, We think math is fun!Leave a Comment

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

MathHappens @ Austin Museum Day- You are Invited!

Lauren SiegelCommunity Partnerships, Events, History Connections, Intern Experience, Museum, Nature & Science Center, Parks & Recreation, Ways to like math, We think math is fun!Leave a Comment

In this photo Ximena Mercado Garcia has items from each Museum Day math station on the table to share with Univision and their viewers. Las matemáticas también pueden ser divertidas. ¡Únete y descúbrelo tu mismo! Sarah Bacca is sending this note with all the details to teachers, principals and schools.  We hope everyone gets the word! Dear Math Enthusiasts,  

15 Tessellating Pentagons Project

Lauren SiegelMaking MathLeave a Comment

We are very excited to have our first batch of all 15 Pentagons!  Thanks to Parker Dewey intern Jason Gorst for having this idea back in January.  We have since celebrated Marjorie Rice and her contribution to the pentagon project, and it inspired a whole series on tessellation that we have brought to schools, the library, the Thinkery, the Nature

What are tessellations?

J JMaking MathLeave a Comment

What are tessellations? A repeating pattern of shapes that goes on forever without any gaps or overlaps. You can think of tiling a floor. Squares, triangles and hexagons are all shapes that tessellate. Mathematician Marjorie Rice discovered some very interesting polygons that tile. It is fun to color and move around all kinds of geometric shapes! See how these squares

Enthusiasm for Math at the Austin Central Library Kids Block Party!

Lauren SiegelEvents, Intern Experience, Library, Ways to like math, We think math is fun!1 Comment

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

Tessellations! Gilbert Elementary Science Day

Lauren SiegelEvents, Intern Experience, Making Math, Ways to like math, We think math is fun!1 Comment

Josephine Sheng, Paola Garcia and Cassandra Gonzalez at Science Day Tessellation puzzles are a great way to spend some time with some regular and irregular polygons and as a group make some beautiful puzzles.  These are going to stay at Gilbert Elementary in the library. And we got a nice note from the principal: Thank you so much for sending

MathHappens @ the Thinkery with Marjorie Rice Tessellating Pentagons

Lauren SiegelHistory Connections, Intern Experience, Making Math, Museum, Ways to like math, We think math is fun!1 Comment

Favorite quote:  “Oh my gosh! I can feel my brain working”. We had a great time at the Thinkery’s Community Spotlight:  Women in STEAM.  Thanks to Halle Herzog, Kyla Kalugden and Cassandra Gonzalez.  We featured the irregular pentagon tilings and artistic butterfly stylings of Marjorie Rice. Marjorie Rice found 4 of the remaining 6 types that were still unidentified in